The National Reconstruction Fund is a huge opportunity for WA

Australia is a wealthy, advanced nation. Where do you think we rank globally for 'economic complexity'? You might have guessed top 10 or 20. You would be wrong.

Australia languishes in 91st place, well down from countries with which we really like to compare ourselves. What about ‘manufacturing self-sufficiency’? Well, we rank dead last among OECD countries. And why does this matter? I will come to that later.

WA has always been a pioneer in manufacturing and innovation. From the Western Australian Boot Manufacturing Company, established in 1907, which produced over 100,000 pairs of boots a year, right through to the vast Kwinana Industrial Area which turbocharged WA's manufacturing sector and has supported tens of thousands of jobs since the 1950s.

And WA still leads the charge. Just two weeks ago I was in Perth seeing it first-hand. I visited ChemX and the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre who are both making headway to help Australia become a key player in battery industries.

I visited BGC’s concrete manufacturing operation which is looking at greener ways to produce building materials.

I also saw how Murdoch University is nurturing the next generation of innovators through its new robotics mentoring program for high school students. Sadly, for too long, Liberal governments have talked big on manufacturing but delivered little beyond glitzy advertising or election slush funds.

The idea of making things at home was an abhorrent idea for the Liberals. It’s resulted in jobs, skills and investment going offshore at an alarming rate. Those rankings I mentioned earlier. They point to a country that relies on others. One that doesn’t make enough anymore. That’s problematic for a range of reasons, but as we learned most recently at the peak of the COVID pandemic when we went looking for the things we needed, we didn’t have them.

In many cases – like in critical minerals – Australia exports resources, waits for the value to be added somewhere else and then imports them back at higher prices.

And as the Prime Minister recently said, "one of the lessons of the pandemic is that we need to be more self-reliant, we need to be more resilient, we can’t just sit back and allow ourselves to be at the end of global supply chains." In short, we want Australia to be a country that makes things. And a country that makes things creates good, secure, fulltime work. WA has all the ingredients to be a manufacturing powerhouse.

Smart people using their know-how to build strong businesses, showing the rest of the country how to get things done. You have an abundance of raw materials, a strong R&D investment and longstanding trade relationships. And the state is thinking long term about its economy and jobs. Australia has a rich and diverse endowment of critical minerals that are crucial to the wires, batteries, magnets, and semiconductors that power clean energy technologies for the world.

That’s why I say if we mine it here, then we should make it here. It’s why we’re developing a National Battery Strategy. We’re building the National Reconstruction Fund. At $15bn, it’s one of the biggest investments in Australian manufacturing in living memory.

It will invest in businesses that want to grow and stay onshore. It will be managed by a board of people drawn from industry and investment circles. It will make decisions in the national interest instead of politicians’ interests.

There are several priority areas that have unique benefit to WA. We want to use this fund to boost medical manufacturing and enabling capabilities such as critical technologies and advanced manufacturing. The fund will also target projects which value-add in resources, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and fibre.

WA is at the forefront of production when it comes to many of these industries - which means WA and its businesses stands to benefit from the opportunities presented by the NRF.

It’s time to back Australian know how so we can grow our economy, create new jobs, and make sure that happens across the country including right here in WA.

And I know plenty in WA will be ready to step up and make that happen.