JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: And now, though, it is time to turn to federal politics because the Albanese Government is launching a $20 million campaign today to try to convince more Aussies to buy locally manufactured products. We’re joined now by the Industry Minister and Science Minister, Tim Ayres. He is in Western Sydney. Tim, welcome back to the show.

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: G’day. It’s really good to be on the show. I’m at Capral Aluminium in one of their factories here in Western Sydney employing Australians making aluminium extrusions from aluminium that’s made here in Australia, mostly for our construction industry for doors and windows.

HOST: It is great to hear the sounds of a commercial business well underway on a Friday morning here.

AYRES: It’s pretty busy here this morning, I can tell you, yeah. Pretty busy.

HOST: It looks pretty busy there behind you. Okay, this is effectively in line with one of your election pledges. What are you doing?

AYRES: Well, we made this commitment during the course of the election. Anthony Albanese announced it as part of the Albanese Government’s response to the tariffs that were announced by the US administration in 2025. The reason this component of our response is so important. For every 10 additional dollars that an Australian household spends on Australian made products, that if all of us do it leads to an additional 10,000 jobs and $5 billion worth of additional activity. So it’s about what governments do, about what firms do, but also about Australians themselves buying Australian made. And this campaign is out there underscoring the advantages for Australia and Australians of backing Australian manufacturing.

HOST: Just on this topic, you and, of course, taxpayers have had to help out a couple of companies over the past year or so who have said they’re really struggling to make ends meet in Australia. Do you think that the dumping of cheap metals product in Australia by China is a problem at the moment?

AYRES: Well, we have a robust anti-dumping regime that is built to make sure that Australian industry is protected from unfair trade practices overseas. The government announced a few months ago improvements to the anti-dumping regime. And as you’ve said, I have been focused very squarely since I was appointed on working with our smelter sector in particular, whether it’s Glencore’s facility in Mount Isa in Northern Queensland, at Tomago in the Hunter Valley, all around Australia – South Australia, Tasmania – working to make sure that while we’ve got these turbulent, uncertain times in trade terms that we’re working to protect a Future Made in Australia by backing in our Australian manufacturing sector. This is a government, the Albanese Government, with the biggest pro-manufacturing package of any Australian government in Australian history.

HOST: Is this package going to include quotas or tariffs on Chinese product?

AYRES: No, this package is all about–

HOST: Is it something you’re considering, though, Minister? There have been some reports this week that maybe if dumping is occurring that you could put tariffs on Chinese products. China has already said it’s unhappy about this prospect. Is it something you’re looking at at the moment – tariffs or quotas?

AYRES: Well, okay, let’s separate these things out. We are backing Australian manufacturing. We are supporting through this campaign saying to Australians buy Australian. You’re right to point to the series of other measures where the Anti-Dumping Commission and our broader trade remedy system is doing its work in the normal way. We support that activity.

As Australians saw last year, the announcement of tariffs by the US administration was an unwelcome development. We have acted to make sure that our anti-dumping regime is fit for purpose because we’re backing Australian manufacturing because it delivers good jobs in suburbs here like Smithfield, industrial regions like the Hunter Valley and Central Queensland, right around Australia.

HOST: You’re sort of avoiding the question, but I’m guessing I’m not going to get an answer out of you specifically on that one. Can I go to –

AYRES: I don’t think I am. We’ve got an anti-dumping regime. We’ve got a trade remedies regime. It’s there for a purpose. It’s doing its work.

HOST: All right. Can we just go to the Senate. Obviously you’re in the Senate, you’re part of negotiating deals and packages to get laws made. What’s it like dealing with the Federal Coalition at the moment? If you get an agreement from one of your counterparts, can you be sure that they’ve then got the support of their party room to actually make something a law?

AYRES: Well, what we’ve seen and what Australians have watched over the course of the last period is exactly what happens when a party becomes focused on the partisan interests rather than the national interests. You see, if you do what the Liberals and Nationals have done, ever since the Morrison period, and put the party interests before the country interests, you end up just talking about yourselves and not what is in the interests of Australia and Australians.

We’ve kept the focus squarely on, whether it’s in the area that we’re talking about – Australian Made – or whether it’s about national security questions, the focus squarely on the national interest. We had the Day of Mourning yesterday. The Liberals and Nationals did 24 interviews yesterday about themselves – about themselves. They managed to make this week, when they said to bring the parliament back to legislate, to implement the Segal reforms in full, when the parliament came back, they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the full package. They said it’s all too soon, and then they’ve made the whole week about themselves and their toxic dysfunction.

HOST: Yeah, it is an interesting time, that is for sure. Minister, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

AYRES: Really good to be on the show. See you later.