Sam Ringwaldt, Conry Tech CEO:
“Future is the operative word when it comes to Australian manufacturing. It’s always tomorrow’s problem, not today’s. It’s great that Albanese is talking about Australian manufacturing, but we need to start putting these words into action. The Australian Government needs to invest in our future manufacturing today, not someday.
“The NRF is a prime example. It has some amazing people involved, and lots of real world experience at the helm, but the timeline reads like a Utopia TV show script. The program gets announced to great fanfare, the $15bn funding gets confirmed, the board gets chosen, the first meeting is held. A year on, before it has achieved anything of note, it gets consolidated into a bigger manufacturing program with an even more ambitious objective. As a point of comparison, the US has spent billions in the US Inflation Reduction Act that inspired the NRF. Australia is yet to spend a cent.
“Our manufacturing report shows that Australian manufacturing has been in terminal decline for decades. It will take more than speeches to fix it. We want Australian manufacturing to thrive, but every year we delay substantial action and investment, we see more factories close, more companies leave, and more imported goods. Soon there will be nothing left to save.
“It’s not all doom and gloom. We’re foolishly patriotic. We moved back from the US to achieve success in Australia and build things in Australia. We believe that manufacturing businesses can thrive in Australia, but we need much more support for that to happen.
