Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027

Mr WILLCOX (Dawson) (10:52): It's always a pleasure to follow the member for Forde—always ill-informed but very enthusiastic, so congratulations to you. I rise today to demand answers regarding the collapse of the manufacturing industry in Australia. Australia has the world's best iron ore, the world's best resources and the world's best workers.

Yet, because of this government's war on affordable energy, we cannot even afford to turn that iron ore into steel. Under this government, we've become a nation that digs it up, ships it out and then pays a premium to buy it back. This is not a strategy.

This is a surrender. While our competitors use Australian resources to build their empires, our local workshops are being priced out of existence by a government that seems more interested in Greens slogans than the reality of the factory floor. You cannot build a manufacturing sector when the basic costs of doing business are being driven through the roof—excessive red and green tape, high energy costs and difficult industrial relations laws.

I recently hosted a manufacturing roadshow in Mackay, and the message was clear. Our manufacturing sector is at breaking point. We have a talented business in Mackay that produces world-class rock bolts, products that underpin the safety of our entire mining sector, yet they're forced to compete with inferior, imported steel bolts that land in Australia much cheaper than it costs to manufacture them in Australia.

This is not a fair market. It is a stacked deck. Our foreign competitors operate without crushing energy costs or the heavy handed regulation that cripple our own manufacturers.

This government burdens Australian manufacturers with red tape while rolling out the red carpet for subsidised imports. Minister, why is this government destroying our manufacturing industry because you refuse to hold foreign imports to the same standards you mandate for Australian manufacturers? Will the minister commit to establishing a national import quality taskforce to hold foreign imports to the same standards imposed on local manufacturers?

Does this government find it acceptable that Australian made goods are being priced out of the market by substandard inputs? We also know that modern manufacturing requires baseload electricity—electricity that's affordable, reliable and available 24/7, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows. Labor is so obsessed with reaching net zero that they've zeroed out on manufacturing's ability.

You cannot forge world-class Australian steel on the back of a passing breeze. I ask: will this government commit to reforming the energy grid to ensure industrial hubs can access stable, affordable baseload power? Australia's standing in global resource investment is slipping.

We have consistently fallen down the rankings of the Fraser Institute's annual survey of mining companies, not because of a lack of resources but because of the rise of regulatory burden. Capital goes where there is certainty, and right now Australia looks to be a high-risk zone because the environmental goalposts are being moved at the stroke of a pen. Labor's safeguard mechanism is a carbon tax by stealth—a financial handbrake on heavy producers, forcing capital to flee to nations with better policy settings.

Can the minister explain how imposing arbitrary, impossible-to-achieve environmental targets on our manufacturing industry enhances our sovereign capability? Will the minister scrap these mechanisms to restore the investor confidence required to scale up our local workshops? The testimony from the manufacturing roadshow made one thing very clear: you cannot be green when you're in the red.

We need to restore sovereign confidence by ensuring our tax and regulatory landscape is stable. When our large-scale players, particularly in the mining sector, have the confidence to invest, it creates a massive flow-on effect for our local manufacturers. Certainty at the top of the supply chain provides business confidence to workshops in Dawson.

Minister, the final questions I have are: Does this government have the guts to admit its energy policy is destroying our industrial base? Will the Albanese Labor government commit to restoring the affordable power necessary to rebuild our manufacturing industry? The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Sharkie ): I understand that the member for Pearce would like to present a copy of their speech for incorporation into Hansard, in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 6 November 2025.