Put Australian Jobs and Manufacturing First

Put Australian Jobs and Manufacturing First

Ms WELLS (Lilley) (17:24): When I was preparing the Lilley budget submission, I had one question front and centre. It was: what infrastructure do northsiders need to make our community the best place in the world to live? As it turns out, the LNP do not prioritise the north side like I do. In fact, they did not present any vision or plan at all. Not a cent of new infrastructure funding was announced for Lilley in the federal budget a fortnight ago. When the Prime Minister decided to pop by for a photo op at Geebung the following week, the least he could have done was bring a construction crew to get the Beams Road upgrade underway, rather than a camera crew to take photos of an empty construction site. Overall, this lacklustre budget is a real slap in the face for Queenslanders. Less than half of the Morrison government's infrastructure spend in Queensland will be delivered in the next four years, with more than half of their budget spend being pushed off into the never-never beyond the forward estimates. They are all announcement and no delivery.

We have had massive interstate migration to Queensland in the past 12 months. We have had a net gain of 30,000 people move to our magnificent tropical north. We have the most decentralised population in the country, and in terms of land we are twice as big as New South Wales and seven times as big as Victoria. We are fighting to be the home of the summer Olympics in 2032, which has the potential to be a huge boost for local jobs and for our hospitality and tourism sectors, but we first need the infrastructure to support that growth. We are ripe for investment, yet the Morrison government gave New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia double the infrastructure funding that it gave Queensland in the federal budget a fortnight ago.

There are three sure-fire ways to generate economic growth and get Australia out of the recession: invest in infrastructure to lift capacity and boost productivity; invest in people through education and training; and ensure all infrastructure projects include a provision for the compulsory employment of Australian apprentices. There is a simple way to do all three: build here, create jobs and train apprentices. Reconstruct Australia in Australia. Australians need a plan that genuinely contributes to our national prosperity and the growth of new modern jobs for our local economies now and for generations to come. A robust local manufacturing sector ensures local workers have well-paid, permanent jobs that allow them to spend in our small businesses and stimulate our local economies. Manufacturing creates those jobs, provides that certainty and is in our national interest.

Using the power of government, we should be transforming our economy to power manufacturing in our industrial neighbourhoods, like Geebung and Nudgee in my electorate of Lilley. An Albanese Labor government will deliver national reconstruction that is focused squarely on jobs-good, secure jobs. We will establish a 630 million over five years to create a unique vaccine production site in Singapore. The new site will provide Sanofi with the ability to produce innovative vaccines on a massive scale for Asia and quickly respond to future pandemic risks. We need to create an environment that incentivises Sanofi to build vaccine production sites right here in Australia. High-tech, high-quality, Australian made manufacturing is what we need more of on the north side.

The climate emergency presents Australia with an opportunity for significant economic growth. It presents an opportunity to train apprentices for the new energy jobs of the future.

The climate emergency presents Australia with an opportunity for significant economic growth. It presents an opportunity to train apprentices for the new energy jobs of the future. We want those jobs. We want them on our shores and we want them in our local economies. As a nation we have a significant competitive advantage in creating those jobs. Australia has some of the world's best natural assets-in solar, in wind and in minerals-that could power our new energy economy. We also have some of the smartest, hardest working people on earth, who want to work in a prosperous new industry like the renewables sector. We should view addressing the climate emergency as an opportunity to create good jobs and to put Australia in a strong position to realise our potential as a superpower in the great economic reset.

Locally, in my electorate of Lilley, there are renewable companies like GEM Energy, a solar power and battery company that started out in Emerald and now has offices on the north side of Brisbane and in Darwin. They've grown from a team of five to over 60 direct employees, whose jobs range from engineering and electrical to sales and administration. The story of GEM Energy proves that there is a bright future for Australian workers in renewable energy. Aaron, who was working in an insurance call centre and living near the poverty line, started his career in solar energy and moved up through that industry over the last 10 years to become a manager for GEM. Solar has allowed Aaron and his family to build a life on the north side. Young men have gone from casual workforce employment to completing electrical apprenticeships in solar. Older workers struggling to find work can retrain and find good permanent jobs in the solar industry. We need to support these jobs of the future for our young people in need of permanent and meaningful work and for our older workers who are looking for a new industry to utilise their skills and experience.

But, instead of securing those new energy jobs for Australians, the LNP have wasted eight years of opportunities by bickering amongst themselves over 22 different climate and energy policies. Just recently, the LNP squandered a 1 billion on the Brisbane Metro. I welcome the decision to improve greater Brisbane transport network connectivity and especially the decision to upgrade Brisbane's bus fleet with 16 new all-electric vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions. But, if we are going to spend 19 million bus-building facility was built in 2009 at Eagle Farm, and it was designed to build three buses a week. But, instead of choosing Volgren be the primary supplier of the all-new electric fleet for Brisbane, backing local jobs and backing Australian manufacturing, the Brisbane City Council, in conjunction with this Morrison government, have decided to appoint a European company, HESS, to be the prime contractor in their supply contract partnership, alongside Swiss multinational company ABB-the largest investment any Australian government has ever made in electric mass transport road vehicles. It should be supporting Australian manufacturers and supporting local workers. Money provided by taxpayers should not be going to offshore multinational companies when we have a perfectly good manufacturing plant right here in Eagle Farm, already in use, flush with local workers. But the LNP Brisbane City Council has decided to hand out over 1 billion grant to Australian universities and research.

This is a pattern of behaviour that we have come to expect from this underwhelming eight-year coalition government. In 2014-15 they underspent on TAFE and training by 247 million less than promised in 2015-16, 202 million less in 2017-18 and 920 million less spent than they have promised in TAFE and training since 2014. Is it any wonder that we have 140,000 fewer Australians in apprenticeships now than when the LNP first came to office? By annually cutting funding to universities and to TAFE, the Morrison government are robbing both younger and older Australians of opportunities to retrain, to upskill and to seize job opportunities when they come along.

The skills and training sector can supercharge Australian ingenuity and spur on economic growth, but it seems only a Labor government understands the power of that possibility. Apprenticeships are the path to good jobs in trades. That is why Labor's plan will help more Australians take up the tools. An Albanese Labor government will train thousands of workers by ensuring one in 10 workers on major government projects are Australian apprentices. Labor will invest 100 billion in new spending and absolute pork-barrelling. You should be ashamed.