Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON: FUNDING
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1641
does not control the levers which influence the nation’s
macroeconomic performance. I thus know he cannot be
blamed for the high Australian dollar, the resources
boom and the two-speed economy. However, I also
know that the minister and the Baillieu government
have tools at their disposal to help cushion the blow of
the high Australian dollar, and I think that is lost on
Mr Dalla-Riva because he keeps referring to the high
Australian dollar. I know the dollar is high, and I know
Mr Dalla-Riva does not control the level of our
currency, but he and the state government have tools at
their disposal to cushion the impact of the high
currency.
What I do not know is why the government is sitting
back and allowing our manufacturing sector to drift.
The government cannot do this for long. It cannot sit
back and allow our manufacturers to go to the wall. The
historically high level of the Australian dollar requires
the government to take a more proactive approach to
the manufacturing sector in order to cushion the impact
of the currency’s high level. The Baillieu government
and Mr Dalla-Riva need an urgent and serious policy
response, and they need it now because of the high
Australian dollar. The government needs to quickly
develop a plan.
Allowing the manufacturing sector to drift while
allowing the bureaucracy to come up with a plan for the
manufacturing sector through the Victorian
Competition and Efficiency Commission process is
simply not good enough. Victorian manufacturers and
Victorians employed in the manufacturing sector are
nervously waiting for leadership from this government.
I would not want to be a manufacturer or to be working
in the manufacturing industry at the moment, because
there is a huge vacuum in leadership on the part of
government in relation to the manufacturing sector.
The Victorian manufacturing sector is waiting for a
statement on government purchasing policy that would
benefit our manufacturing industry. It is waiting for a
commitment that our manufacturers will benefit from
ongoing acquisitions for Victoria’s public transport
services, such as trams. It is waiting for a commitment
on payroll tax relief. It is waiting for a plan. It is waiting
for a policy. Any one of the things I have just
mentioned — or maybe any two of them — would
build confidence in local manufacturing, underpin
access to financial investment and perhaps increase job
retention levels.
You cannot take a fatalistic view on this. You cannot
put your hands up in the air as Mr Dalla-Riva seems to
do and say, ‘I cannot control the level of the Australian
dollar, so I am disempowered’. No. The minister has
power and has been in power. He has tools at his
disposal to cushion the blow of the high Australian
dollar. It is about time Mr Dalla-Riva worked that out.
None of those things were mentioned in the budget.
Furthermore, the word ‘jobs’ was not mentioned once.
The budget was a missed opportunity to assist and
inspire confidence in our manufacturing sector. Not
only was it a missed opportunity to assist this besieged
sector but as it turns out the budget became an
opportunity for the government to strike a further blow
against our manufacturing sector by failing to provide
funds for the Australian Synchrotron.
Innovation and the consequent improvements in
productivity are critical for the survival of the Victorian
manufacturing sector. According to Australian Bureau
of Statistics data, Australian businesses that innovate
are twice as likely to report increased productivity and
63 per cent more likely to report increased profitability
than businesses that do not innovate. According to
page 198 of the Economic Development and
Infrastructure Committee’s report of its inquiry into
manufacturing in Victoria:
… the future of manufacturing in Australia is dependent on
improvements to innovation performance and productivity
levels.
The EDIC report is saying that improvements to
innovation equal increased productivity. That is pretty
straightforward.
I refer to budget paper 3 — and let us not forget this is
the government’s budget paper — which says on
page 156 under the heading ‘Industries and innovation’:
Industries and innovation outputs drive sustainable and
enduring economic growth in industries across Victoria
through programs and initiatives that support research,
innovation and commercialisation and a thriving small
business sector.
There you go — that is straight from the horse’s mouth.
That is straight from the government’s budget paper,
which also says improvements in innovation equal
increased productivity. There is no doubt, therefore,
that in future the Victorian manufacturing sector will be
very different to the one we now have.
In order for our manufacturing sector to survive the
competition from international jurisdictions that have a
competitive advantage over our state in terms of labour
costs, other production costs and government
assistance, the Victorian manufacturing sector must
continue the transformation it had been undergoing
under the Labor government from a traditional,
low-skill, labour-intensive base to being an