Matters of Interest

Exports and Imports

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:23): Green steel and other advanced manufacturing possibilities, like hydrogen, can exist and will exist right here in our state as long as we have governments willing to support them. The fact is, right now, we do not. So much of what Australia currently consumes is manufactured overseas, particularly in China. More than this, what we do export from here is low complexity. Our highest exports are coal, iron ore, petroleum and gold. We dig it up, we let other nations have it at a bargain price, we ship it off and then we literally buy back the products that other nations make.

In a world now looking to a carbon neutral future, these exports must be ringing alarm bells. Not making things well just does not make good sense. This is really important because we have a couple of elections coming up that are setting the agenda for a pandemic recovery. Computers, parts for office machines, toys, medical instruments, vaccines and medicines are products we could make here, products that would make our economy more complex and therefore more competitive, but in large part we do not do it and that is just flat out stupid.

The pandemic and the pandemic recovery are laying bare fundamental flaws in our economy. We simply do not make enough things, and in times of crisis we are reliant on the unreliable. Even before the pandemic we ignored the warning signs. Workers in many industries have long felt the lash of economic reform without incentives to move to more advanced jobs. What do I mean by this? The loss of making cars out of our nation is a perfect example. Canada, Germany, China and many other nations all make cars and their parts.

In a nation that now sits on billions of COVID debt for many decades to come, we have to ask ourselves: what was the actual value of telling car manufacturers to go somewhere else? What advanced manufacturing replaced this critical turning point in our nation's history? Put simply, it is always hard losing your job, but it is made a whole lot harder when the only job to move to is less complex and more than likely pays a lot less.

Reform is possible, but only when a government is actually looking to make the pie bigger and making sure that everyone gets a share of it. Cutting taxes for companies will not work if there is no incentive for the company to reinvest what it saves right here in Australia. Putting up tariff walls will not work if it means that no-one will buy the exports that we can make. What does work well is procurement, for one. We should use what we make.

Right now, 270 kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines are being run from Cultana to Port Lincoln, a $300 million project that will not even use one bar of Australian steel. The excuse of ElectraNet, which is building the project, is that unfortunately local steel could not meet the criteria. The steelworks at Whyalla is literally right next door to this project. This is bizarre, given that the same company will use local concrete. Why? They say it is because it has the best cost structure. The concrete is presumably shipped all the way from Port Adelaide. A cost structure that can ship concrete but cannot accommodate driving next door to pick up Australian steel—that is just not good enough.

It is incredibly important to have foundation industries from which you can build the rest of your manufacturing sector, big industries like energy, aluminium, steel, chemicals and fertilisers. These are basic foundations that are critical, but we will not have these foundations if we use imported versions of what we make here. I am not aware of even one major project currently underway through the Marshall Liberal government that is using Australian steel or concrete. It is shameful. We need to have a vision for the future of jobs and industry that goes beyond building a basketball stadium in the city.

When last in government, Labor invested in creating hydrogen production; it is at Tonsley. We are now going further. South Australian Labor is committed to building, owning and operating a 200-megawatt hydrogen power plant. That is owning our own power again. It is putting ourselves back in the driver's seat to make power for homes and industry and to create jobs by using what we make here. It is the kind of vision that means we can rejuvenate manufacturing, grow new jobs and industries, make it here, make it well and make it available to Australians first.