Address by Maria Vamvakinou MP

Federal Member for Calwell

Product Design and Manufacturing Challenge Expo

Hume Global Learning Centre

 

I want to start by thanking the organiser’s of today’s event for giving me an opportunity to speak to you about innovation, education and the future of manufacturing in Australia, and to talk about some of the policies Kevin Rudd and Labor have put forward in these areas.

 Nationally, Australia’s manufacturing sector accounts for more than 75 billion a year in exports and more than one million jobs. Yet despite its enormous importance to the Australian economy and to the lives of those who work in the industry, manufacturing rarely receives the sort of national attention that it should in Australia. 

In my own electorate of Calwell, manufacturing is particularly important. Calwell has long been a centre for local manufacturers and we continue to be heavily reliant on the manufacturing industry for local jobs.  

When Australia’s manufacturing sector is doing well, Calwell benefits. But when things aren’t so good, Calwell suffers. 

Unfortunately, the last decade has not brought us much joy.  

Two indicators in particular are cause for concern when it comes to measuring the health of manufacturing in Australia.  

The first is manufacturing exports. Between 1983 and 1996, Australian manufacturing exports grew at a rate of 14.8 per cent a year. But over the last 5 years, that growth rate has slumped to just 1.8 per cent. 

The second is productivity growth. In the mid-1990’s, Australia’s productivity growth averaged about 3.2 per cent. But in 2000, that figure had fallen to 2.2 per cent, and current forecasts predict that our productivity growth rate will continue to fall even further over the next 10 years.  

Whilst the difficulties faced by Australian manufacturers can be attributed to a number of factors, one thing is for certain.  Any attempt to safeguard the future of manufacturing in Australia must necessarily include measures aimed at strengthening both our export growth and our productivity growth.   

My belief, and the belief of my colleagues in Labor, is that innovation, research and development hold the key to Australia’s manufacturing future, and that the Australian government needs to invest more in these areas. 

By innovation, I mean the development of new products and services that give Australian manufacturers a competitive edge in today’s demanding global market. 

And this is where young people like those of you here today come in to the picture.  

Fostering a culture of innovation among Australian manufacturers is in part about directing more government funding and support into research and development, and in part about producing the sort of highly skilled workforce that Australia will need to meet its future challenges and to take on the best the rest of the world has to offer.   

The more skilled our workforce is, and the more innovative our products are, the brighter Australia’s manufacturing future looks. 

That is why forums such as this one that encourage innovation, that promote careers in design and manufacturing in our local schools, and that bring together representatives from schools, industry and the local community are so important.  

Innovation is the cross over point where manufacturing and education coincide, where the future of Australia’s manufacturing sector is inextricably tied to the quality of engineers, technicians, researchers and skilled workers that we produce as a nation. 

In today’s knowledge economy where new ideas and innovation are now highly valued, we need to encourage young people to become more enterprising and more creative. 

Let me quickly list the core planks of Labor’s manufacturing policy: 

The first is to invest in an education revolution to create the best educated and best trained workforce in the world, and to give every young Australian an opportunity to build a better future both for themselves and for Australia. 

In relation to manufacturing, there are two education policies put forward by Labor that I want to highlight. 

The best way for Australia to address its worsening skills crisis is to invest in the education and training of young Australians.  

In this vein, Labor’s $2.5 billion Trades Training Centres in Schools Plan is a policy to build or upgrade trade workshops, Information, Communication and Technology labs and other facilities in every secondary school in Australia, including those located in Calwell. 

This is about making Australian secondary schools world class providers of vocational education and training, and expanding the range of skills and career options available to Australian students. 

I spoke before about the importance of innovation, research and development to manufacturing, and about the crucial role that education plays in terms of producing tomorrow’s engineers, researchers, technicians and other professionals. 

Today, only 0.4 per cent of Australian university students graduate with maths and statistics qualifications, compared with an OECD average of 1 per cent. 

To encourage more students to study maths and science at university, a Rudd Labor government will halve university HECS fees for new entry maths and science students, and halve HECS repayments for maths and science graduates that take up work in a relevant maths/science occupation, particularly teaching.

The second plank of Labor’s manufacturing policy is to invest in research and development to help Australian manufacturers produce new products and services that give them a competitive edge internationally.  

For example, Labor will invest up to $200 million to establish 10 Enterprise Connect Innovation Centres around Australia to connect business people with new ideas. 

Through Enterprise Connect innovation centres, businesses will be able to: 

• Find and adapt the latest research and technology;
• Access prototyping and testing facilities to turn their innovative ideas into new products; and
• Cut through red tape to identify sources of government support for their innovative activities.  

Australia’s car manufacturing industry is one sector that particularly needs help as consumer demand shifts away from the traditional Australian sedan towards smaller, more economical cars imported from overseas.  

Labor will invest $500 million in a Green Car Partnership designed to generate $2 billion in investment to develop cheaper and cleaner alternative fuels in Australia and to manufacture low emission, environmentally friendly Australian cars. 

In this way, securing jobs in the automotive industry is linked to the challenge of tackling climate change.   

The third plank of Labor’s manufacturing policy is to invest in new technologies like wind and solar power and to take advantage of the enormous economic benefits associated with today’s fast growing renewable energies market.  

For those interested in renewable energy, Labor wants to see Australia return to its former position as a world leader in solar thermal power demonstration and research by 2010.  

To achieve this, Labor has announced a $50 million investment in the Australian Solar Institute that will incorporate the CSIRO’s National Solar Energy Centre and create a global solar energy hub to fast track the development of solar thermal technology in Australia. 

Labor also wants to see Australia become the clean energy hub of the Asia-Pacific region, making clean energy central to Australia’s economic and environmental future.  

Specific initiatives to help Australian businesses take a larger slice of the renewable energy market include a $15 million Clean Energy Export Strategy and a $20 million Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre.   

The fourth plank of Labor’s manufacturing policy is to invest in infrastructure such as Labor’s plan to create a fibre to node National Broadband Network that will give every household in Calwell, and 98 per cent of all Australian households, access to broadband at speeds 40 times faster than most experience today. 

Given the growing importance of the internet in areas like education and small business, Labor’s National Broadband Network is about bringing Australia into the 21st Century and investing in the future. 

Young people hold the key to Australia’s future and to the future of Australia’s manufacturing industry. My hope is that some of you here today will go on to consider a career in the sciences, and to become the engineers and researchers we need, to become enterprising and develop leading edge technologies to help build a brighter future for manufacturing in Australia. 

Thank you.