MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr KEOGH (Burt—Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel) (15:33): You could power the city of Perth, the city of lights, on the hypocrisy contained in the topic of the MPI today. Of course, after listening to that contribution from the Leader of the Nationals, not only is he walking out; the students that are worried about their future in this country walked out as well.
They couldn't even last the whole 10 minutes of listening to the Leader of the Nationals. Why is that? It's because of their record in government.
No government did more to devastate the Australian manufacturing sector than the last Liberal government. They sent the car industry packing. They sent more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs offshore under their watch.
They were always talking down industry with their extreme anti-manufacturing agenda, and it didn't stop there. When we came into government to establish our Future Made In Australia agenda to rebuild manufacturing in this country under the great leadership of the former minister—the member for Chifley over there—what did they do? They opposed the $23 billion that we were putting into manufacturing through Future Made in Australia.
They voted against energy bill relief for our manufacturing sector, and, when we brought in tax cuts for every single manufacturing worker in Australia, they decided they wanted to have an early election about it. During the last parliament, when the current Leader of the Opposition was their industry spokesperson, she used to go around calling Australian manufacturing a graveyard.
I wonder why that was! They went into the last election with a policy to rip up the National Reconstruction Fund—the biggest investment in domestic manufacturing in a generation—after they'd already slayed our manufacturing base here in Australia. It's crazily brave from their tactics committee, on the basis of the shambles they were in when they were in government as a coalition, to bring up this topic as the MPI now.
But there is a lone wolf—sorry, I mean a lone voice—on the other side that is prepared to bring a challenge to the current liberal orthodoxy of industry policy. Of course, I refer to none other than the member of Canning. Draping himself over a 1969 Ford Falcon like he was Liza Minnelli, he said that it's 'an Aussie car made by Aussie workers for the Australian people' on his Facebook video.
He said, 'I want to see us making complex things again, because I'm ambitious for my country.' He should probably say that to the member for Mitchell, who's actually their industry spokesperson. But something tells me they're taking a break from each other at the moment. No matter what the member for Canning or the member for Mitchell, or even the Leader of the Opposition, says or doesn't say, nothing can erase their record.
They have never supported manufacturing and, despite the bluster from one of their MPs for his own political purposes, they never will. But it was at least nice to see the member for Canning effectively endorsing Labor's approach to supporting making more here in Australia. The contrast of the record of those opposite when in government to the record of this government could not be more stark, which is what makes this MPI topic even the more foolish.
If you want to support manufacturing, you need to do more than just shoot off some Facebook reels in a driveway. You need to actually show up, just like the industry minister did this week in Mount Isa—working with industry and the Queensland government for an investment of $600 million to secure the future of regional jobs in North Queensland and ensuring 600 jobs.
That's just like what this government did in Whyalla in South Australia and with the Nyrstar plan in Tasmania. And this is about more than just those jobs and those regional economies. The minister said this morning—I heard him on the radio—that these are vital industries for Australia's national interest, critical to our economic future.
The Mount Isa copper smelter, for example, makes half of our copper output. The Whyalla steelworks make most of the rebar for construction. These industries need a strong champion at their side to support them through difficult global conditions.
That's exactly what the Albanese government is, and we are seeing results. There are 7,500 more manufacturing businesses now than there were in 2020. This means more good jobs and more investment opportunities.
We need to make the Australian economy more productive. That means we need a thriving manufacturing sector, and of course we've been doing that. We've been backing the manufacturing sector since day one, with $15 billion through the National Reconstruction Fund, $500 million through the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund for clean energy manufacturing—including batteries—and $400 million through the Industry Growth Program.
We're setting up a new $1 billion economic resilience program through the National Reconstruction Fund. There's $2 billion for the green aluminium production credit and a $5 billion net zero fund. But it doesn't stop there.
Of course there's defence as well. Nowhere is it more true than in developing our defence capabilities that we invest in our manufacturing here in Australia. Take, for example, the recent announcement of the Ghost Shark project, which was launched by the Deputy Prime Minister.
It's a $1.7 billion investment in developing long-range undersea autonomous vehicles to be made right here in Australia. It's great Australian technology built by Australian skilled workers to help bolster our national security. As I stood with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister only a few weeks ago in Henderson Western Australia, we announced a further $12 billion investment in developing the Henderson maritime complex—which will be, in total, a $24 billion project.
That will see and support the building of landing craft for Army, the building of new frigates and of course our AUKUS capabilities in Western Australia. It will see Defence industry become the second biggest industry in Western Australia. But those opposite didn't have a plan for Defence industry; they just had talking points.
Just like their overall defence policy more generally, it was all headline and no substance—no real commitment to Australian content when they were in government, and no real commitment to developing our sovereign capability. Then we come to agriculture, which of course the member for Maranoa is very invested in. No government has done more for improving market access for our agricultural sector than the Albanese government and of course the trade minister, Senator Don Farrell.
The value of production in agriculture, fisheries and forestry will pass $100 billion this financial year. We've reopened access to China. That's $20 billion worth of trade.
And of course we've finalised a number of free-trade agreements. We've opened 29 new markets. We've protected 81 of our markets in the face of trade threats.
We've restored 17 markets where trade was lost and made 107 improvements to existing markets, all to help our farmers and producers. We are a government that backs manufacturing through thick and thin. We are prepared to invest, and we are prepared to support—something that, based on the speech we just heard, those in the opposition want to walk away from, from supporting our industries.
We make sure that we protect our vital national interest and our national security by supporting our manufacturing industries and supporting our national capability. Those opposite have nothing to offer except a track record of failure. The Albanese government is rebuilding Australia's industrial base.
The government is building a more productive and resilient economy. That means good jobs for all Australians. We will never get that from the coalition.