Australian Manufacturers slam Albanese Government at Cost of Living Committee
A joint media release with
The Hon Sussan Ley MP
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Shadow Minister for Industry, Skills & Training
Shadow Minister for Small & Family Business
13 September 2024
Australian manufacturers have lined up to slam the Albanese Government at the Senate Select Committee on Cost of Living today in Canberra.
The Committee heard compelling evidence of Australian manufacturers facing skyrocketing costs, deteriorating business conditions, thousands of jobs losses and government manufacturing policies which have been poorly developed and comprehensively failed to provide any meaningful support to businesses in need.
From major food manufacturers to iconic Australian brands, there was uniform despair with the Government’s failure to understand the dire reality across the economy.
Australians are paying for Labor’s economic failures with high costs driving up the prices of everything from groceries at the checkout to the materials needed to build homes.
Manufacturers roundly rejected Labor’s $38 billion worth of manufacturing ‘policies’. The evidence made clear the National Reconstruction Fund is not fit for purpose and one manufacturer remarked Labor’s Future Made in Australia “is about large investments in foreign companies to do things in Australia”.
Food manufacturers have given evidence of energy costs increasing 30 per cent with gas prices in Victoria alone increasing 100 per cent over the past year. This is showing up at the checkout.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Industry, Sussan Ley said it was time for Labor to accept their industry policies are in tatters with everyday Australians paying the price.
“Today, manufacturers have declared that Labor’s $38 billion bundle of industry ‘policies’ is failing to save them, and worse, forcing them to shed workers,” the Deputy Leader said.
“This is another demonstration of Anthony Albanese’s economic incompetence, with Labor spending billions of taxpayer dollars just to make the situation for Aussie manufactures even worse.”
Senator Jane Hume, Chair of the Cost of Living Committee, said that Australians are paying the price for Labor’s policy failures which are pushing up costs for manufacturers.
“Today we heard that businesses are being forced to close operations because of Labor’s punitive industrial relations agenda.”
“At the same time, no manufacturer came out to support Labor’s wrongheaded policies like the Future Made in Australia and the National Reconstruction Fund.
“What we heard today confirms that Australian manufacturers need a back to basics economic agenda to thrive. Cheap and reliable energy, a flexible industrial relations system that works for employees and employers, less red tape and a tax system that encourages investment - and that is exactly what a Coalition Government will deliver,” she concluded.