DEAKIN, Australia
,
March 10, 2023
(press release)
–
The Greens amendments to the Bill to establish the Albanese Government’s National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) is a shameful victory for politics over sensible policy. Australian industry and Australian jobs should never be used as a Senate bargaining-chip. It’s a slippery slope which can only end in tears for our economy. It’s time to start staring the Greens down. Were they really going to follow the Opposition’s lead by voting against a $15 billion plan to revive Australia’s manufacturing sector and sovereign capability? The sustainable, selective, responsible, sophisticated, and lawful harvesting of our native forests is crucial to our economy and jobs. The industry supplies the world’s most sustainably sourced native hardwood to our manufacturing sector, which in turn delivers the carbon-storing products businesses and households rely upon every day. AFPA welcomes the Albanese Government’s assurance that the Australian firms which add value to our native forest product in mills and manufacturing plants around the country remain eligible for NRF support. During the 2019 election campaign the now Prime Minister wrote: “I promise you that if I become Prime Minister, a Government I lead will not shut down the native forest industry”. The forest and forest product sectors appreciate the Albanese Government’s ongoing support for our industry, support not altered by the hollow Greens stunt today. It has been made clearer today that the Greens are not genuine supporters of the manufacturing sector and the jobs it creates.
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