Labor commits $20m to boost South Australian manufacturing jobs

TANYA PLIBERSEK MP

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING

SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN

MEMBER FOR SYDNEY

SENATOR THE HON KIM CARR

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INNOVATION, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

SENATOR FOR VICTORIA

AMANDA RISHWORTH MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

MEMBER FOR KINGSTON

NICK CHAMPION MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR MANUFACTURING AND SCIENCE

MEMBER FOR WAKEFIELD

NADIA CLANCY

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BOOTHBY

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $20 million to establish the Australian Centre for Innovative Manufacturing at Flinders University, to boost industry and research collaboration and skills development in a world class Factory of the Future. This investment will bring together leading researchers, industry, government and unions to modernise and transform South Australian manufacturing.

Establishment of this world-class manufacturing industry growth facility at Tonsley Park will help to spread advanced manufacturing technologies and processes across Australia.

The Australian Centre for Innovative Manufacturing will build partnerships with universities, cooperative research centres, public research agencies, industry groups, unions and business development programs.

This Centre will create a factory of the future, using adaptive technologies that allow it to be reconfigured for multiple products. Projects undertaken at the Centre will help transform the global competitiveness of existing manufacturing enterprises and accelerate the growth of new advanced manufacturing ventures.

This announcement comes on top of our plans to support firms to innovate and grow through our $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Future Fund, and encouraging business to invest in this country through the Australian Investment Guarantee.

Support for the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Industries demonstrates Labor’s commitment to rebuild collaboration between industry and the research sector, in line with our target of devoting 3 per cent of GDP to R&D by 2030.

Unlike the Liberals, Labor understands that to create good jobs and remain globally competitive, Australia must keep up with technological change and build the industrial structures of the 21st century.

Under the Liberals, R&D is going backwards. This Government has no vision, and no commitment to Australian industry and jobs.

The Liberals goaded Australia’s motor vehicle producers to leave the country and have presided over of the decline of Australia’s manufacturing sector.

The latest ABS Quarterly Labour Force data shows that employment in manufacturing is falling, yet all this government can do is cut.

The Centre will work to create jobs and promote the growth of advanced manufacturing in areas of strategic importance, including: defence and aerospace, construction, medical devices/assistive technologies, wine and food, minerals and energy.

This Centre will employ 20 researchers and technical personnel, 200 academics and be capable of hosting up to 50 industry personnel working collaboratively on multiple projects.

The Centre will also comprise a factory of the future test lab and a centre for advanced education and training providing courses for up to 1000 students per annum and accommodating up to 50 postgraduate students.

Only Labor has a comprehensive and coordinated plan that will support local manufacturing firms and jobs, including:

• Lifting research and development investment to 3 per cent of GDP per annum by 2030, to ensure manufacturing has the best scientific and research expertise available.
• A $25 million food and fibre industry strategy to drive local jobs and innovation, as well as attract investment in manufacturing, particularly in rural and regional areas
• An electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing strategy to work with industry to create the new job opportunities that come with the transition.
• Safeguarding Australian jobs in sugar, steel, aluminium and other industries vulnerable to trade attack by strengthening the Anti-Dumping Commission.
• Implementing a Local Projects, Local Jobs plan, that will see more government procurement and investment in major projects spent on local businesses and local jobs.
• Establishing sector plans like Labor’s Red Meat Industry Strategy, Steel Industry Plan and National Rail Manufacturing Plan, to lift productivity, promote sustainable profitability for producers and processors, and secure regional jobs.
• Ensuring business gets the support it needs through our network of supplier advocates, innovation councils, Enterprise Connect and the Industry Capability Networks.
• Ending the Liberals’ war on science and returning science to the centre of government by resetting the relationship between government and Australia’s scientists and researchers.
• Investing $1 billion to boost TAFE, apprenticeships and skills including, scrapping upfront fees for 100,000 TAFE students who choose to learn the skills that Australia needs to become a modern advanced manufacturing economy.

This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for increased investment and jobs in Australian manufacturing, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.

After six years of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready to deliver a fair go for all Australians, not just the top end of town.