Speech at the Australian Manufacturing Awards

I too, of course, would like to begin by joining Tracey [Spicer] in her Acknowledgement of Country to the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, acknowledge their Elders, past and present, and extend that acknowledgement to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.

I want to acknowledge and thank Scott Filby and his team, the publishers of Industry Update, for their work on this remarkable event. 

I think I spoke at the last one in Sydney last year.

This is bigger and better. Absolutely terrific. 

Besa Deda, WilliamBuck, Australia's first female chief economist from her time at St George. 

Mark Smith from BlueScope, Bernie Quinn, the CEO and Engineering Director of Premcar. 

And my friend and colleague Dylan White, Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs, Industrial Relations, Racing, and Major Events. 

Maybe we need a racing and major events minister at the Commonwealth level – we'll have to give it some thought. 

Thank you to Scott and the team at Industry Update for inviting me to say a few words. 

It really is wonderful to be here to celebrate this with you. 

It's an even tougher world for Australian manufacturing and for Australia. 

Countries around the world are racing to secure domestic manufacturing capability and reduce their dependence on volatile global supply chains. 

Australia is too. 

It is in everything about the Albanese Government's Future Made in Australia plan, backing you and the hundreds of thousands of Australians in engineering, production and trades roles who work so hard to make Australia stronger. 

Since February of last year, the Albanese Government has worked with our colleagues at the state level and with industry to secure the future of major heavy industrial facilities in Whyalla, Port Pirie, Hobart, Mount Isa, Gladstone, Tomago, and last week in Bell Bay. 

Together, these investments support tens of thousands of jobs across the country and preserve the core heavy industrial capabilities that underpin Australia's economic resilience, and that so many of you in this room rely upon. 

Part of that resilience does come from Australia's ability to produce and process the materials that modern economies rely upon. 

Clean energy technologies to advance manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and quantum. 

Australia's capabilities in steel, in aluminium, in copper, in critical minerals will be vital to Australia's future economic prosperity and for our security and our resilience. 

In an increasingly volatile global environment, countries that retain these capabilities can prosper even when supply chains come under pressure and trade conditions change. 

But economic resilience is about much more than just retaining existing capability. 

Resilience is also about building new capability in the areas that Australia has future competitive advantage in. 

That means commercialising Australian ideas here in Australia. 

It means adding more value to our resources before they are shipped offshore, and it means capturing more of the economic opportunities created by new technology right here at home. 

That's why the Albanese Government established the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. 

Through that Fund, we're supporting Australian businesses to move up the value chain and capture more of the economic opportunity here in Australia. 

Investments that the Government makes today are helping build the factories and facilities where the next generation of good Australian jobs will be created.

Now, making Australia stronger, making us more resilient, making us more productive, and making our future economy more prosperous. 

And those investments, approaching $2 billion so far, in critical technology firms like Silicon Quantum Computing and Diraq. 

The principle extends far beyond deep technology. 

Just a few weeks ago, a $120 million investment from the National Reconstruction Fund in Built Living will bring advanced manufacturing, automation, and robotics in the housing supply chain, lifting productivity in the building industry, and delivering more homes for Australians. 

The Albanese Government is also strengthening Australia's trade remedies system to ensure that Australian manufacturers really do compete on a level playing field, because capability and toughness and hard work sometimes aren't enough. 

Last month, the Albanese Government passed legislation to move the safeguards powers from the Productivity Commission to the Anti-Dumping Commission, and to build a new Australian Trade Remedies Commission. 

That is a real achievement that will back Australian industry in the future to build a stronger, more active function that will not hesitate to act on behalf of Australian industry when there's evidence of dumping, overcapacity, and unfair trade practices overseas. 

To put Australian manufacturing on a real level playing field and make Australia stronger. 

Delivering affordable gas for industry is a vital part of this project. 

That's why the Albanese Government will introduce legislation to establish Australia's first National Domestic Gas Reservation Scheme. 

Reserving up to 20% of Australia's gas for Australian industry to put downward pressure on prices and deliver real change. 

It's a tough decision. 

It should have been made 25 years ago, but it's the Albanese Government that is delivering real change and making that tough decision now to make Australia stronger, to defend our current industry, and to build new industry where energy prices are a source of competitive advantage for Australia. 

There will be choices for the Liberals and Nationals and One Nation in our Parliament – for all the rhetoric about energy prices, there will be a single choice in legislation that will shortly be introduced to the Parliament. 

You can't be for Australian manufacturing if you are against reserving Australian gas for Australian industry. 

That is a deadly serious, nation-building, critical national interest question that members of parliament and senators will have to make their mind up about over the coming weeks. 

We have got so much to be proud of. 

I look around the room tonight – I think Tony Dragicevich from Capral Aluminium is here. 

We talked about the interventions in heavy aluminium manufacturing. 

We are a country, one of the few countries on earth, that has an end-to-end aluminum supply chain from bauxite to finished aluminum products. 

In 1936, we didn't have that. 

But the people who founded Capral wouldn’t have known the challenges Australia would face and the role that a domestic finished aluminum goods industry would play in making Australia stronger. 

That's the lesson for Australia in all of that effort. 

We don't build industrial capability here because we can predict the future.

We build it because we cannot. 

That's exactly what all of you are doing here tonight. 

Building stronger firms, employing highly skilled Australians in good jobs. 

I really want to say congratulations to all of tonight's nominees and all of tonight's winners.

And to say to all of you who work so hard in Australian manufacturing, thank you for your efforts. 

We are going to continue to work as hard as we can in the Albanese Government to back your work, to back Australian manufacturing, to back good jobs in the regions and the outer suburbs, and to make Australia stronger. 

Thank you very much.