Anthony Albanese outlines Buy Australia plan to boost local business

ALP leader Anthony Albanese wants to revive Australian industry with a ‘Buy Australia’ plan to give local businesses a bigger slice of government purchases.

Anthony Albanese will aim to revive Australian industry if Labor wins the next election.

In a speech to the NSW Labor conference on Saturday, Mr Albanese will announce Labor will legislate to create a Made In Australia Office, which will sit at the centre of Labor’s “Buy Australia” plan.

The office will operate under new procurement rules that will be legislated to act­ively help local businesses to get a bigger slice of government purchases.

The policy is specifically aimed at helping Australian firms win a greater share of government infrastructure spending.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has plans to boost Australian industry. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

The Commonwealth spends roughly 3 per cent of GDP per year on procurement, with $53.9 billion worth of ­contracts recorded on the Austender website for financial year 2019-20.

“Under the Buy Australian Act, maximising the benefit of government purchases to Australia will be the law of the land,” Mr Albanese will say.

In addition to maximising local content on government purchases, Mr Albanese, a former federal infrastructure minister, wants to increase the share of government of money going to small and medium businesses, especially on infrastructure projects.

Labor claims that 95 per cent of the top 20 infrastructure projects worth more than $500 million over the past five years went to foreign companies.

Mr Albanese said he is ­determined to change that.

“Labor will provide opportunities for mid and small-tier Australian companies to participate in the infrastructure pipeline helping to build and strengthen our sovereign capability,” he said.

“This will be done by packaging tenders where appropriate into multiple packages that allow smaller companies to bid for them.”

Mt Albanese wants more government spending to go to Aussie businesses. Picture: Newswire/Gary Ramage

Other initiatives to help increase the number of products made in Australia include a commitment to work with the textile, clothing and footwear industry so the Commonwealth buys more locally made uniforms.

Labor will also pledge to strengthen the requirement companies declare whether they are paying their “fair share” of tax in Australia, including making them open up about their use of tax havens.

“We will work with states and territories to ensure that the $20 billion provided annually through National Partnership Agreements is consistent with a national agreement on a Future Made in Australia,” he said.

“Together these plans will ensure that Australia’s cap­acity to manufacture essential goods in areas including health, energy, infrastructure, defence and space and communications is increased and that we are more resilient.”

Mr Albanese also pledges to clean up the Indigenous procurement policies, which have been criticised for focusing too much on ownership and not enough on how many Indigenous people actually benefit from them.