Manufacturing Vital To Our Future

National Secretary Bill Shorten outlines the way forward for Australian manufacturing to the 2007 Biennial AWU National Conference.

I am passionate about Australian manufacturing. This is not news. And I am optimistic about the future of manufacturing in this country, and I have reasons.

Manufacturing is Australia's second largest industry sector. It employs more than 1 million people and contributes 20 percent of Australia's exports.

But its importance is about much more than the sum of these numbers, and what they mean for the lives of working Australians. It's about this very simple fact: a strong, diverse and advanced manufacturing industry is the heartbeat of an economy. It's one of our greatest engines in driving innovation, in competing with rest of the world and in securing a high standard of living.

That's how important it is. And it's the most important thing, the important cause, in my life thus far.

But manufacturing, Australian manufacturing, is in trouble.

145,000 jobs have been lost in this country since the Howard Government came to office saying "relaxed and comfortable, trust me" in 1996. And even that awful figure is not the full story.

The real worry is we're losing jobs not only in traditional manufacturing skills that are vulnerable to competition from emerging countries like India and China, but also in relatively hi-tech, high skilled areas like telecommunications, airlines and computers.

We are crucially lagging behind other Western, capitalist developed countries in the skills, research, technology and infrastructure needed to move into new areas of manufacturing.

For far too long, Australia has been a slave to the prevailing asinine view which says that to compete with the rest of the world our manufacturers must either cut costs to match the lowest in the world or move offshore.

We've stuck to that indolent kindergarten, cargo cult opinion while other countries have recognised that their future in a global economy is based not on cheap labour or cheap malfunctioning machine, but on the skills, innovation and ingenuity of their people.

We've stuck to that view while other countries have understood that the low-wage, low skilled road is not the answer to China and India - and not the road to increasing productivity and living standards, as Kevin Rudd says.

Late last year, the AWU commissioned some polling on manufacturing. That polling shows something that we already knew - that a very significant majority - 77 per cent - of Australians believe that sending jobs offshore is wrong.

Now the Federal Government can take action, of course it can take action, and Australians expect their Government to do more to protect jobs.

More than 90 per cent favour the government investing in activities, in industries, in research, in experiment, in path-finding courage and new inventions, that mean more jobs for Australians.

In other words, most Australians don't accept the prevailing view in Canberra. They don't accept that governments can't do anything, or anything more than standing to attention and saluting while the free market goes thundering past. What most Australians want is to see action from our Federal Government to support manufacturing and Australian jobs.

I don't know about you, but I for one, am sick and tired of hearing that we can't find a way to get behind our manufacturers when plenty of other countries - like Ireland, Finland and Singapore - all these countries can and they're much smaller than Australia. Or Sweden, which gave us the Saab and the Volvo.

In 1945, three countries had booming aviation construction markets, Brazil, Sweden and Australia. In 2005, Brazil and Sweden still had big air construction markets and we don't.

I am sick and tired of watching the Howard Government sit on the sidelines and do nothing as we wave goodbye to our local industries struggle to compete and either go broke or move offshore.

I am sick and tired of hearing that the national government of this country - it says it has no part to play in the products Australia makes, when it can find the money, find the funds to prop up health care, and child care, and Telstra, they can even find with two billion dollars to go to war in Iraq, and they're going to spend twenty billion dollars on the private defence industry.

But in manufacturing, the Howard Government can say that it's not in the business of 'propping up inefficient industries', Haven't we seen that as we negotiate the redundancies of our long serving members marching out the door?

I think the evidence tells a very different story.

Perhaps it's ideology of the Liberals. Perhaps it's politics. Perhaps it's just incompetence and shortsightedness. I don't know why the Howard Government doesn't do anything, our members don't know why they don't do anything, Australians don't know. Australians believe we are in a fight to protect Australian jobs, but that our side has decided not to come onto the field.

That is why at this 2007 National Conference, the AWU is putting up several motions to support manufacturing in Australia.

These motions form the basis of our manufacturing policy, we've had meetings with the Shadow Minister Kim Carr, we'll be advancing these motions within the broader labour movement and Labor Party. These motions form the basis of a commonsense call to arms.

These motions call on the Federal Government to recognise, and recognise with funds, recognise the value of manufacturing to Australia's future and want we want from Canberra is leadership, we want them to start planning ahead for the things we need to make and sell, and so build a globally competitive manufacturing sector.

We are calling on the Federal Government, and the incoming Rudd Government, to do five things.

This first motion calls for much greater leadership and support from the Howard Government for Australian firms to enter and remain part of important global supply chains. What's wrong with reinvigorating 'Buy Australian'. Why don't we make 'Buy Australian' mean something?

We're also calling for a new $100 million Australian Industry Investment Fund to attract major projects. They spend a lot of money attracting the Olympic Games, they spend a lot of money attracting the Commonwealth Games. We don't mind bidding for those. Why don't we start bidding to get jobs in this country too? Jobs which actually stay long after the hoopla and the athletes have left.

We want to see a better national environment for encouraging business investment in R&D and innovation. Do you know, if the Australian swimming team was falling behind the rest of the world, heads would roll. The Prime Minister wouldn't be there in his tracksuit hugging them. When that happens in the OECD - that's the global swimming pool of nations - we are falling way behind. We're not in the finals, we're not even in the semi-finals. We're a bit like Eddie the Eel - we're just happy to be there. Government spending on R&D drops to a 25-year low, as has the private sector. It's time for action.

We would like to see is much greater support for the development of industry growth zones - especially in regional Australia. Since when did regional Australia sign on to the political contract that says 'we won't make anything more in regional Australia'?

Finally, we want to see a new National Industry Advisory Service to support smaller firms operating in trade-exposed sectors of the economy. What that's code for is the government of the day should sit down with manufacturers and the unions and have a talk. Let's beef it up and do something. It's a job for all of us, not just government.

A lot of people talk about manufacturing. This conference has the opportunity on these resolutions to go a long way to delivering a brighter future for Australian manufacturing. These resolutions will take us a long way towards ensuring jobs with a future and an Australian manufacturing sector with a future.

These resolutions take us a long way towards opening up opportunities in exciting new areas for Australia where we can magnificently succeed.

It is not written anywhere that we can't be good at aerospace? When did we decide we couldn't be good at marine technology? Where was it decided that we had to buy everyone else's biotechnology and pharmaceuticals? What's wrong with making nanotechnology, glass and materials, and energy and water management and worldwide supplies of this technology being an Australian first?

Our members are proud of the enormous contribution Australian manufacturing makes to Australia's economy - and of the enormous contribution our members make to the undead, undying dream that is a prosperous, fair go Australia.

These resolutions are saying that after a decade of being asleep it's time to wake up for manufacturing.

We need to back our manufacturers.
We need to back manufacturing workforce.
We need to back ourselves - we've become cowards at dealing on the world stage, too often, in government policy. We've got our innovative and competitive companies, Australians are very good at design and engineering, our ability to use new technologies and processes is second to none, and we have a capacity to adapt to change.

We should have the foresight, the courage, the ANZAC daring, the Ginger Meggs ingenuity and the confidence to set a new direction - and create a strong, dynamic and exciting manufacturing future for Australia.

Our ideas will triumph, just as we'll triumph at the end of the year in the election.