Prime Minister's Taskforce on Manufacturing

19 Oct 11

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr today announced more detail about the Gillard Government’s new Manufacturing Taskforce, announced at last month’s Future Jobs Forum.

The new high-level Taskforce will map out a shared vision for the future of Australia’s manufacturing sector and help strengthen local firms as they adapt to changes in our economy, including the rise of Asia.

We want to see the sector move up the value chain. To do this we need to build the skills and innovation that the sector needs for a new era of manufacturing.

The Prime Minister will personally chair this taskforce, with Minister Carr as deputy chair. Because this is a whole-of-government task, a number of other senior ministers will work on the taskforce.

Membership of the new group will also include manufacturing industry leaders, academics and unions.

Senator Kim Carr said the new taskforce would help ensure manufacturing remains a key part of our economy for generations to come.

It will identify a plan for how best to leverage existing efforts, including Government policies and programs, to best capture the opportunities and respond to the challenges facing manufacturing.

The taskforce will meet for the first time in November 2011.

The Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Manufacturing will: 

•  Establish a shared vision for the future of the manufacturing sector; 
•  Co-ordinate and catalyse the work occurring across the manufacturing sector and Government to respond to the immediate challenges of a high exchange rate, technological change and global competition and trading conditions;
• Provide advice on how best to leverage and co-ordinate existing Commonwealth and state government policies and programs, and make further recommendations to capture at a national and regional level the opportunities arising from the Asian century and respond to its challenges, including steps to address:
•  the global trends in manufacturing to 2020 and beyond, especially in terms of emerging markets and technologies and opportunities for value adding to our agricultural and energy and resources sectors.
• The management and workforce skills required to build capability, drive productivity and increase innovation in the sector;
• Science and technology, investment and other firm capability requirements needed for 2020 and beyond;
• The opportunities available from clean energy and sustainable growth;
• The opportunities for new business creation and any barriers to the development of new businesses in Australia;
• Regulatory and other government-induced barriers to competitiveness;
• The productivity of the sector as a whole, and within sub sectors, assessed against international performance;
• The further export potential of Australian manufacturers into Asia; and
• Creating international linkages to underpin integration into global production chains; and
• Provide advice on building closer linkages and collaboration between industry and the research community, domestically and internationally, to assist to transform manufacturing through the application of science and technology and create international science and technology linkages to underpin integration into global production chains.

In total, there will be 23 representatives, with seven sets each of government and industry members.

The industry representatives include OneSteel CEO Geoff Plummer, Boeing Australia president Ian Thomas, Holden chair Mike Devereux, Thales managing director Chris Jenkins, Textor Technologies managing director Phil Butler and Australia Industry Group Heather Ridout.

The six union members include the ACTU, Australian Workers Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, CFMEU, NUW and TCFUA.

The taskforce will be rounded out with three science and technology representatives, including CSIRO CEO Megan Clark.