The ACTU has welcomed the Federal Government’s Future Made in Australia Act as an important step change that will lock in decades of jobs and domestic manufacturing while supercharging Australia’s transition to clean energy.
The Future Made in Australia Act was introduced into Federal Parliament this morning and will mean that we start making things again in Australia – things other countries need for their own clean energy transitions.
The Act invests strongly in growing clean industries like green hydrogen, critical minerals and solar panel and battery manufacturing – industries that are already generating tens of thousands of Australian jobs and are slated for exponential growth through the strategic investments in Future Made in Australia.
The Act makes Australia indispensable to the global transition to clean energy, securing Australians generations of good jobs and national prosperity.
Industries like critical minerals already provides more than 13,000 regional jobs but with the new Act this can supercharge that to hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming years.
The critical minerals industry has created 13,463 direct jobs and the 100 projects currently in the development pipeline will create up to 21, 365 ongoing jobs and another 42,743 construction jobs. The 46 green hydrogen projects in the development pipeline will create up to 26,632 jobs and an estimated 168,491 construction jobs.
The Act includes Community Benefit Principles supports that will “promote safe and secure jobs that are well paid and have good conditions” as well as skills and training investments, building local supply chains, and delivering positive outcomes for local communities—including First Nations communities and those impacted by the energy transition.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President, Michele O’Neil:
“It’s important that under the Future Made In Australia Act these new manufacturing jobs will be safe, secure, well-paid jobs with good conditions.
“We can’t leave Australian workers behind; we need to grab the opportunity that our amazing natural resources give us. Where we put workers and communities at the heart of the transition by embracing a strong role for government with conditions on how public money is spent.
“In the transition to net zero by 2050, we are projected to create between one and two million new direct jobs over the next 25 years.
“By fulfilling our potential as a world leader Australia can not only support local jobs and the reduction of Australia’s climate pollution, but also contribute to cutting the world’s climate pollution.
“Future Made in Australia leverages our unrivaled sun and wind power to create the jobs and build the industries that will form the backbone of the clean energy economy and the key to our national security.”
