As debate around Australia’s manufacturing capacity continues, there was an interesting intervention by Labor Minister Pat Conroy, in direct response to Andrew Hastie’s post about the fact that Australia used to make things.

Mr Conroy urged Mr Hastie to engage with their “Future Made in Australia” agenda because Labor are, apparently, already building our manufacturing capacity.

Who is Pat Conroy you might ask? We don’t really know either, but apparently he’s a real MP and is the Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs. He has the classic modern Labor MP CV, having spent his entire career as a union official or a political staffer. 

So because we’re all grateful to have him impart the wisdom he’s gained from his vast professional experience in the real world, ADVANCE decided to have a look at this Future Made in Australia agenda and see what’s being made.

Here’s the short version: it’s a Net Zero slush fund.

It’s a $23 billion program that barely builds anything but instead creates subsidies and incentives for Net Zero initiatives.

Even the left-wing Australia Institute says as much:

The FMAA will entail approximately $23 billion of new public spending over ten years. The majority of this is accounted for by two new tax credits which incentivise private investment into domestic critical minerals processing and renewable hydrogen production.

Also notable is approximately $4.5 billion in new funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) across several new initiatives, providing grants, subsidies, and investment for the manufacturing and development of renewable technologies, including batteries and solar panels.

Here it is worth reminding you that the subsidies for the car industry amounted to a bit over $2 billion over twenty years. Meanwhile, they’re trying to build from scratch a solar panel industry no one wants for $4.5 billion.

And yet they have the nerve to talk about clean energy being cheap!

It doesn’t stop there, though.

Other highlights of the Future Made in Australia agenda include:

• Closing the gender pay gap
• Making free TAFE permanent
• Supporting a “Buy Australian” campaign
• Continuing the Coalition’s instant asset write-off policy
• Tinkering with industrial relations laws

You will notice something about all of these initiatives, I’m sure.

None of them involve building or manufacturing anything.

Another particular highlight is the Building Women’s Careers program which provides $45 million to increase the amount of women in the trades.

Getting women into the trades is fine as far as it goes, but it’s not exactly a manufacturing policy is it?

More importantly, this program is actually a shameless slush fund for unions and friendly industry peak bodies.

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) are both getting a piece of this particular pie. Another highlight includes the money provided to an organisation called the Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre who are going to be Breaking the Barriers for Women in the Plumbing Industry.

Again, not a lot of building things going on with this Future Made in Australia agenda.

In fact, there’s not a lot of anything going on here.

Instead, it’s endless subsidies for Net Zero dead-ends and free grant money for Labor-friendly groups.

If this is the future Labor is offering, no wonder something as simple as a video of Andrew Hastie standing next to a car is cutting through.