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Future Made in Australia
Australian federal policy initiative From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Future Made in Australia is an Australian federal industrial policy initiative relating to the transition to net zero emissions. It was introduced and implemented by the Labor government of Anthony Albanese in 2024.
History
In April 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled an interventionist industrial policy focusing on the transition to net zero emissions, which would be underpinned by a "Future Made in Australia Act".[1] Later, Treasurer Jim Chalmers clarified that this policy would be focused on incentivising, but not replacing investment.[2]
Jim Chalmers gave a speech which laid out the "guardrails" for the policy in May 2024.[3] The Australian government announced a A$566 million initiative to comprehensively map what is under Australian soil and seabed.[4] The Australian government released a strategy on liquid natural gas, outlining it as a "transition" fuel through to 2050 and beyond.[5]
The Future Made in Australia policy was a major part of the 2024 Australian federal budget.[6] Five priority industries were identified: renewable hydrogen, critical minerals processing, green metals, low carbon liquid fuels and clean energy manufacturing.[7]
In late May 2024, the Australian federal government announced a National Battery Strategy.[8][9] It sets out a goal for the country to be manufacturing batteries with "secure supply chains" by 2035.[9]
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Legislation
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Reception
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The independent economist, Saul Eslake, criticised the proposed policy, describing the use of terms such as "national sovereignty" and "national security" as cover for bad policy.[1] Kylie Walker, a fellow at the Australian National University, was supportive, but emphasised that increasing diversity in the science and technology workforce would help reduce skill shortages.[14]
The Future Made policy has been compared to the American Inflation Reduction Act and the European Green Deal as examples of industrial policy.[15] The program has been described as a shift away from the Washington Consensus.[16]
The program has been criticised for not including health manufacturing, food processing and agriculture in the list of priority industries.[7] Ending the continued subsidy of oil and gas projects has been suggested as a possible extension of the program, by Christian Downie, a researcher at the Australian National University.[17]
The National Battery Strategy has been criticised for not providing enough funding for supporting remote communities to deal with the impacts such as contamination of land and water, biodiversity loss, and the destruction of sites of cultural heritage sites.[8]
Several federal MPs have argued that household electrification schemes should be a key part of the program in the future.[18] Green MPs voted for the program even as they criticised the support for oil and gas projects included in other parts of the budget.[19]
The initial legislation, the Future Made in Australia Act 2024, has been criticised for having "vague and difficult to interpret" guidelines.[10]
The restriction of the hydrogen tax credit for "green hydrogen" (renewable hydrogen) over "blue hydrogen" (non-renewable hydrogen) has been criticised by David Heard, an energy expert who previously worked at Shell.[20] The lack of a requirement for hydrogen classed as "renewable" to be produced by renewable energy at all times was criticised by Steve Hoy, founder and CEO of power tracing technology company Enosi.[21]
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References
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