6 years ago
LABOR $1 BILLION BOOST FOR ADVANCED MANUFACTURING JOBS
BILL SHORTEN MP
A Shorten Labor Government will invest $1 billion in Australian advanced manufacturing to support Australian industries, grow Australian businesses and create Australian jobs.
Labor’s Australian Manufacturing Future Fund will support innovative Australian manufacturing firms who want to grow their businesses and create jobs, but who might find it difficult to obtain private sources of finance.
This is all about Australian jobs. While Turnbull and his Liberals give tax handouts to multinationals and millionaires, Labor is backing Aussie businesses that make things in Australia, by Australians.
Labor wants Australia to be a successful advanced manufacturing nation, but we recognise that firms need assistance to modernise and move into high-value production to make them globally competitive.
The Australian Manufacturing Future Fund will help our local manufactures grow, innovate, diversify, and develop new opportunities. This could mean:
Auto component manufacturers re-tooling or diversifying into other industries.
Food manufacturers investing in new equipment to package new products for Asian export markets.
Metals fabricators expanding into pre-fabricated housing.
There is currently a finance gap for innovative small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector. Business leaders such as the Australian Industry Group have said that financial institutions are “downgrading manufacturing industries and making access to finance more difficult and expensive for businesses across the entire sector, regardless of individual circumstances or risk.”
Labor won’t let the big banks hold Australian advanced manufacturing back. We are backing Australian manufacturing and Australian jobs.
The Australian Manufacturing Future Fund will be modelled on Labor’s highly successful Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
It will facilitate investment in advanced manufacturing, engineering and design by partnering with private finance to reduce the perceived risk in innovative projects. Reducing that risk will make these projects more attractive to lenders of private capital.
Building on what we know works from the CEFC, the Fund will continue Labor’s work in developing an innovative industry policy for the future.
The Fund will apply commercial rigour when making investments, and will offer financing including, but not limited to, equity, concessional loans and loan guarantees.
Upon establishment, a Labor Government would, via the Fund’s board, request that priority is given to consideration of transformative investments in the automotive manufacturing and food manufacturing sectors.
Turnbull and the Liberals have spent more than four years driving Australia’s manufacturing sector into the ground.
They have no plan for the future of Australian manufacturing and Australian jobs.
While the Liberals close industries and send jobs overseas, Labor will invest in Australians businesses and create Australian jobs.
Australia’s advanced manufacturing sector will have a bright future under a Shorten Labor Government.