Makingof our future jobs boom

Smart manufacturing key to recovery

THREE hundred thousand new jobs will be created by 2030 in a $1.5bn road map to transform Australian manufacturing in the wake of COVID-19.

Scott Morrison will unveil the roadmap in a major speech today ahead of next week’s Federal Budget, which he will describe as “one of the most important since the Second WorldWar”.

It will be central to Australia’s recovery from the pandemic which will hit the global economy “45 times greater than the Global Financial Crisis,” the Prime Minister will say.

As part of the strategy, Mr Morrison will name six priority sectors as Australia’s lucrative manufacturing industries of the future: space, defence, recycling and clean energy, medical products, food and beverage manufacturing and miningtechnology.

In Tasmania, it’s tipped to launch a wave of new jobs in the space sector, medical technology and food-related manufacturing. “We make things in Australia. We do it

well. We need to keep making things in Australia – and with this strategy, we will ,” Mr Morrison will say in a speech to the National Press Club.

At the strategy’s centre will bea$1.3bn“modern manufacturing initiative ”, which will inject about $80 min to each priority sector to create largescale production hubs or R&D facilities for a range of businesses and other organisations. The nation will target “high-value areas of manufacturing where Australia has either established competitive strength or emerging priorities” in the 10- year strategy, inspired by manufacturing powerhouses like Singapore, GermanyandCanada.

“This will require our manufacturing sector to be even more productive and highly skilled, to be more collaborative, at the leading edge of R&D, commercialisation and technology adoption( and) tobemoreoutward-lookingin searching relentlessly for footholds in global markets,” Mr Morrisonwillsay.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews said the plan would create 80,000 direct skilled and unskilled manufacturing jobs by 2030 in a“conservative estimate”, and about 300,000 total direct and indirect jobs.

Tasmania could benefit from space sector investment, particularly due to its remotehealth work with Antarctica.

The strategy would boost Australia’s global standing as a manufacturing nation.

Road maps for each sector will be finalised by April to set clear goals and performance indicators for jobs, R&D and investment for the next two, five and 10 years and to identify where to direct funding.

Grants will also be available to help companies turn research into products and to secure work in local and global supplychains.