Federal Member for Whitlam Stephen Jones has welcomed a new Labor plan for a National Reconstruction Fund to create jobs and drive investment, saying the Illawarra was perfectly positioned to take advantage of such an initiative.
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Mr Jones said the fund would be great news for the region with its strong proud history of making things that Australia and the world wanted. He said there was enormous potential given Illawarra's steel-making and manufacturing history and expertise.
"A package like this is almost tailor made for Wollongong and the Illawarra," Mr Jones said.
"We have seen during the pandemic where the fault lines lie in our economy. We have been overly reliant on imports of key manufactured goods. As soon as there is a break in the supply chain that can have a dramatic effect."
Mr Jones said Australia was on the very bottom of the OECD table for self reliance when it comes to manufactured goods and the Illawarra could help address that.
"We will still be importing stuff but we have got to significantly shift our manufacturing capacity. A smart way to do that is to leverage off what we are good at and where we have existing strengths.
'We are focusing on adding value to our minerals and resources. We produce and export more iron ore than any other country on earth but we only produce one per cent of world steel. So improving our steel-making capacity will be a focus."
Mr Jones said Australia also exported key components of the batteries that were going to be the centre of renewable energy and electric vehicle making. He questioned why Australia didn't value add by making the batteries here. He said value adding could also occur in the food and agriculture sector.
Mr Jones said the skills and knowledge that already existed in the Illawarra made it an ideal place to take advantage of such opportunities.
"We have generations of skilled tradespeople and we still have the university and the TAFE which have the training capacity," he said.
"We also have the scale of the steelworks and all the supply chains. So we have massive advantages.
"The fund is to be set up on a commercial basis; $15 billion in funds will be dispersed at arms length of government by an independent board in the same way the Renewable Energy Fund was established and operates. It will be dispersed in three separate ways. One as loans, secondly as shared equity where government takes a stake in a business or enterprise, and thirdly as a co-investment."
Mr Jones said the focus for Labor's plan was 100 per cent about improving Australia's manufacturing base, creating secure jobs, driving regional economic development and diversifying the national economy.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed serious deficiencies in Australia's economy, in particular our ability to manufacture products and be globally competitive when it comes to innovation and technology.
But he said Labor believes building new industries and boosting existing industries represents an opportunity to recover with a stronger economy.
Mr Albanese said the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund will do that by partnering with the private sector, including superannuation funds to support investments that demonstrate they will grow the economy and increase employment.
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