MICHELLE STANLEY, HOST: You might have heard in the headlines, The Future Made in Australia Act. It's just been introduced in Parliament. It's been billed as the federal government's big plan to revolutionise the manufacturing and renewable energy industries, using taxpayer funded incentives to entice investment. That how will it all work? Patrick Gorman is the Assistant Minister to the PM and the Member for Perth. Good morning, Patrick.
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: What we see when we come to this vision of a Future Made in Australia is that when you think about the global economic transition to net zero, that every country is undergoing, there's nowhere in Australia you'd rather be than Western Australia. And I think there's nowhere you'd rather be than Perth. And there's great opportunities there. Powering manufacturing, powering new industries with cheap, reliable, clean energy. It's about that. And it's also about not replacing private investment. It's about encouraging private investment. Because we know there are people and we've lived that in Western Australia for decades, the benefits of international private investment into our economy. We want to make sure that we get the next decades and more of private investment. And that means investment in renewables. Investment in new forms of manufacturing, and grabbing all those opportunities. And we don't want to sit on the sidelines, we want to act and that's why we put this legislation into Parliament today.
STANLEY: Now, you say there's no better place than in Perth were statewide this morning. And I think a lot of people I'm from the Pilbara, I'd say there's no better place to be than the Pilbara. Now we understand -
GORMAN: Now, I'm the Member for Perth so I'll admit my bias.
STANLEY: And I'll admit mine, living in the Pilbara, for sure. I understand there is a community benefit principle, which runs through this just to make sure that projects achieve social goals. What does that mean?
GORMAN: Yeah, so we've got the three pillars of this legislation. The third pillar is those community benefit principles, which is a legislative requirement that ensures that any public investment from the Commonwealth, or where we're partnering with private investors, ensures that you do have community benefit. Now, I see that will mean we want to make sure that there's new jobs. Good, secure, well-paying jobs in our region, where a number of these investments will be made. We want to make sure that the community at large benefits. So we're not just seeing capital go back offshore. But actually there's these sustained investments in communities. And we're going to put that at the heart of this legislation so that every time we're assessing a new proposal, where proponents have come to government saying 'we think there's a big net zero opportunity here for a particular region,' we'll say, 'great, we want to see the financial benefits, but we also want to see the community benefits.'
STANLEY: Well, what sort of industries do you envisage would get this kind of investment?
GORMAN: We're already investing as the Commonwealth, working with the state government, on the hydrogen industry in the Pilbara. So we see that there's huge opportunities when it comes to hydrogen. And indeed, part of the Future Made in Australia agenda is those hydrogen tax credits to encourage producers. We know there's a lot more opportunity when it comes to the world's demand for our critical minerals. And we also see that there are big opportunities when it comes to the sorts of things that when you've got lots of cheap, reliable, affordable, renewable energy in our power grids - and, I note we've got a few different power grids in Western Australia - that we use that energy to create embodied energy products. Whether that be opportunities that come forward in green steel, and I was down in Collie the other week, talking to them about what they see as some of the opportunities that might come when it comes to green steel. There's so many opportunities and the message we're sending, not just to the Australian people with this legislation, but the message we're sending to the world is: Australia is racing towards those opportunities, and we're putting the legislative mechanisms in place to make sure we can grab as many of them as possible.
STANLEY: It's great to have a focus on manufacturing, but is our infrastructure up to it, here in Western Australia? When you hear things - delays with power and water connections are a problem now for some industrial development. So are you confident that our infrastructure could cope?
GORMAN: Well, we know that when it comes to energy infrastructure, we do need to invest more. That's why we've got that $3 billion partnership with the Cook Government to invest in more transmission. We know that for a lot of critical minerals processing, water infrastructure is essential. We'll continue to look at what we need to be doing there. But I think Western Australia's history is that we don't let an infrastructure constraint become an opportunity constraint. We expand our ports, we build bigger roads. We've seen across the Pilbara, for example, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of rail line built so we can grab those opportunities, particularly with iron ore. Western Australia just needs to keep doing that. And that's exactly what is happening. But, again, if it needs additional investment from the Commonwealth to grab those opportunities, we'll have more legislative authority to do so as a result of this Future Made in Australia legislation.
STANLEY: Twenty-eight past nine on ABC Radio. Patrick Gorman is with you, the Member for Perth and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister. We're talking about the Future Made in Australia Act which was introduced into Parliament today. Now, is there a risk, Patrick Gorman, that billions of dollars could be wasted on some industries here that would just never be competitive? I mean, you hear about the Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund and the millions or billions of dollars there that goes to projects that end up falling over, not years later.
GORMAN: Firstly, on the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. Obviously, that's the responsibility of my wonderful WA colleague, Madeleine King. And we were really open when we came to office that it wasn't giving the results that parts of Northern Australia and indeed in Western Australia needed. And that's why Madeleine has done a lot of work to make sure that more investment is going out the door. And it's going into the projects that communities want. But - it was it was a bit of a mess when when we inherited it. A bit like the the budget overall was a bit of a mess, with a trillion dollars of debt from our friends in the Liberal Party. But when it comes to how do you make sure that we get good value for money, we'll put in this legislation a requirement for a National Interest Framework. That National Interest Framework will be to ensure every time we put investment in, I will be out to go and say to my constituents, the prime minister will be able to say to the nation at large. This was an investment we made in our national interest. And if we think about one of the other things that this will seek to do is to more closely align and national security and our economic security interests. And to make sure that we as I said before, modernise and strengthen the economy, as we move into that world built on cleaner, cheaper energy.
STANLEY: And national interest doesn't ensure that something will be successful, though?
GORMAN: Obviously, you will always want any investment the Commonwealth makes to be in our national interest. And we want to make sure that that is a guiding principle of this -
STANLEY: Are there any clawback provisions in this? And if the government does hand out money to industries that don't do what they say they're going to do? Or you know, are there any provisions for that?
GORMAN: There are provisions that obviously when you've got under the financial framework that exists for any Commonwealth expenditure, there are already a number of those provisions were strengthened some of those provisions since we've come to office, they will apply here. When it comes to specific investments, we are really openly looking for a return on every front. A return on the Commonwealth's investment, a return for communities, a return to make sure that we grab these opportunities of net zero. And that we do that other piece of really important work - which I think your listeners would know - we need to be thinking much more about, which is to make sure our national security and our economic security interests are more closely aligned.
STANLEY: Patrick Gorman, thanks for your time on the program this morning.