Federal Budget 2020: Local manufacturers to get big boost
Australia will turbo charge its space race, defence, medical and hi-tech manufacturing industry with almost $1.5 billion to get the nation’s best inventions to market. Manufactures in areas including recycling and food and drink are set to benefit.
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Australia will turbo charge its space race, defence, medical and hi-tech manufacturing industry with almost $1.5 billion to get the nation’s best inventions to market.
A new manufacturing strategy targeting Australian innovations in six priority areas — food and drink, minerals, medical, space, defence, recycling and clean energy — will be unveiled by the federal government on Thursday ahead of next week’s budget.
Under the $1.3 billion scheme, to be spent over four years, businesses will be helped to develop, produce and export their products internationally.
At the same time very large Australian projects will be supported to use smaller local businesses in their supply chains.
A further $107.2 million will go toward a new initiative increasing supply chain resilience, and $52.8 million will be allocated to a second round of manufacturing modernisation grants.
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Industry Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews told The Daily Telegraph she believed NSW was very well placed to grow its sector, and net the benefit of an additional 3.6 additional jobs for every manufacturing job created.
“NSW does benefit greatly because they have a significant presences in all of the priority areas we have identified,” she said.
Ms Andrews said the success of Sydney-based medical technology company Resmed, which produced ventilators for the federal government during the COVID-19 crisis, was testament to the opportunity in health manufacturing.
“It’s not just about medicines, it’s about medical products … there are some real opportunities,” she said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will use a major speech at the National Press Club on Thursday to further highlight how the government plans to “keep making things in Australia”.
Mr Morrison will argue Australia’s manufacturing industry, which is worth $100 billion a year, is now more “agile” and “dynamic”.
“Over recent decades, our manufacturers have largely moved on from the mass production of standardised goods,” he will say.
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Dale Smith said his plastic recycling business in Narrabri would benefit from more manufacturing in Australia as it would grow the demand for the products he produces.
“It’s a very supply and demand market that’s still finding its feet in Australia because it’s traditionally been an export market, but since China stopped taking waste, there’s increased opportunity domestically,” he said.
Originally published as Federal Budget 2020: Local manufacturers to get big boost
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