Australia has a history of being a world leader in growing industries, whether medicine, telecommunications or renewable energy. We have also been blessed to house the natural resources required to develop many of these industries require. Unfortunately, over the past 30 years, the Australian economy has lost innovators, forced to go overseas to pursue their new ideas. We have lost leaders in software, renewable energy and aerospace to other nations due to the lack of support in Australia. We also are home to some of the world's largest Lithium, Copper, Nickel, and Rare Earth Element resources. These are the raw ingredients required to transition into a green economy.
We need to analyse global trends to determine what industries will be most important in the future. We must focus on the sustainability of these industries and not allow lobbying from the current major industries to stifle this transition. Using the information we uncover, we must act to transition our economy. This involves moving subsidies from the industries, which will lose relevance to supporting the establishment of new sectors. We must fund the retraining of workers and education sectors to ensure we have the skills needed for the future. We must ensure we also have the support industries to allow these future sectors to flourish; this includes extracting the raw mineral resources needed, such as Copper, Rare Earth Elements and Lithium. We also need to ensure that we establish systems that prioritise these resources for Australian use instead of buying through private third party companies at a markup using Australian natural resources.
It has been shown in other nations that money invested into improving the ability of policymakers to research industry away from lobbyists results in greater savings than letting industry lobby on their own behalf. The savings come from learning about potential alternative methods and a general subsidy reduction that lobby groups often call for. By pushing for a more neutral method for policy to be created, we can realise an overall saving that can be used to fund the transition of the national economy and fund programs that benefit the average Australian, not just donating corporations.
We should also be looking to improve the actual capabilities of those within the public sector. We spend millions of dollars a year on consulting firms and paying contractors to work in public positions on an effectively permanent basis at a rate higher than if they were employed directly by the government. We need readily available information on how much money the government spends on these contractors and consultants. We also need to make sure any report generated by a consulting group using taxpayer money is available to the normal citizen unless it would be a genuine national security threat.
In the situations government does need to use external help, where practical, they should be using Australian businesses. I have seen how difficult it can be to win a bid doing a project with the government if you are a small Australian business. There is a preference to use large international companies with name recognition, which often are more expensive than smaller or local businesses. Small to medium enterprises employ 70% of working Australians. These are the real businesses supporting the Australian economy, and it only seems right that the government should be supporting them.
For years, we have seen a brain-drain of young South Australians moving to New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland to pursue careers in professional services, engineering, medicine, and law. There are fewer available jobs in South Australia. One of the unexpected results of the COVID19 pandemic was an increase in immigration from the eastern states into South Australia with the increased allowances for remote working by businesses. This shows that by creating incentives to promote remote working capabilities and moving corporate headquarters out of Sydney and Melbourne, we can bring jobs to South Australia and stop the brain drain.
To be effective, we need to create programs to develop the infrastructure for future growth before it occurs. If investment into infrastructure is left too late, we will see similar issues encountered in Melbourne and Sydney, where population growth has outstripped infrastructure development. This policy would be beneficial to all of Australia, not just South Australia. The same incentives can be applied to other states to help spread the load over all states. It would also lead to an improvement in the quality of life for those living in areas of Australia that have grown faster than the infrastructure.
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Authorised by Michael Hopper, Independent Senator Candidate for South Australia.
PO Box 94, Kensington Park, SA, 5068