I recently visited Knorr-Bremse, a rail manufacturing factory in Sydney's west. The factory is a state-of-the-art part of Australian industrial capability, manufacturing for passenger and freight rail here and the world.
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It is one of hundreds of high-quality Australian factories in the rail supply chain.
I was there to launch the National Rolling Stock Procurement Pipeline and to underscore the importance of fostering a Future Made in Australia. The Pipeline, a platform designed to streamline local manufacturing and procurement processes, marks a significant step towards realising this vision. By providing a comprehensive overview of business opportunities across the country, it enables local manufacturers to plan effectively, seize opportunities, and create good jobs.
We've had a fragmented approach to rail in this country that has hurt Australia. From different rail gauges to varying standards and procurement processes nationwide. Australia's rail manufacturing sector used to be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. The Eveleigh Railway Yards housed the hemisphere's biggest industrial facility.
Locomotive and carriage workshops became the beating heart of places such as Newcastle. With every train they built, they powered the growth of the economy for the benefit of all Australians.
People of Newcastle and the Hunter have long known that their workshops are essential to Australian progress, as well as for local economic development. Yet successive Liberal and National NSW governments have aggressively off-shored rail manufacturing.
Some state governments trashed local manufacturing and sent good jobs and rail manufacturing elsewhere. Comments by former Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian show how wilfully ignorant the former government was about our national capability; "Australia and NSW are not good at building trains," Berejiklian said. "That's why we have to purchase them". And what became of the trains built overseas? They were over-budget, delivered late, and plagued with safety problems. The Coalition aren't new to these acts of national self-harm, like when they forced the auto industry overseas, or when the previous minister for defence diminished our shipbuilding capability by saying you couldn't trust Australians to "build a canoe".
Central to the Albanese government's ambitious agenda for a Future Made in Australia is the revitalisation of Australia's manufacturing sector, with a particular emphasis on regions such as the Hunter. Put simply - we'll make stuff here and there will be good, secure jobs to make it happen.
In practical terms, this means establishing factories and advanced manufacturing facilities in key mining and industrial hubs such as Newcastle and the Hunter region, and attracting billions of dollars of investment from here and overseas, creating quality engineering and trades jobs across the country.
A Future Made in Australia is about building a more resilient and self-reliant economy that can weather the storms of global uncertainty. Nowhere is this more evident than in our response to the big challenge of building a new energy system and reindustrialising Australia's suburbs and regions. Ninety-seven per cent of Australia's trading partners have net zero objectives baked in - that means manufacturing and jobs and opportunities for Australia, which has vast resources of solar and wind.
Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor don't feel the same sense of urgency. Their campaign against a Future Made in Australia is as complacent as it is negative. No serious person who aspires to national leadership should be against building Australia's industrial capability for the future. It's astounding that they simply don't want to make stuff here.
Future Made in Australia is focused on delivering opportunities to reindustrialise our economy so it is fit for purpose for the new global competitive environment. To lift national productivity and future proof our economy. The government is fighting hard to create good manufacturing jobs in our outer suburbs and regional Australia. For regions such as the Hunter, this means increasing our capability to build trains for our unique circumstances, to transport passengers and freight in a modern, efficient, and low-emissions rail sector.
