AUSTRALIAN workers have “benefited a great deal from increased global trade” with countries like China, but governments must make sure that “local producers and businesses are getting the benefits of open markets”.
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That’s the message Labor’s Bill Shorten will deliver to a room full of steel workers at the Australian Workers Union Aluminium Conference in Newcastle on Wednesday.
Mr Shorten, who while in town will attend the opening of new Paterson MP Meryl Swanson’s office in Raymond Terrace, will use the conference as an opportunity to reiterate Labor’s plan to protect the nation’s steel industry by compelling government agencies to buy Australian steel.
He will tell the conference that while “nostalgia is not an economic plan”, Australia “shouldn’t stand by and let our local producers be undercut by government-subsidised imports from overseas”.
“Labor supports free trade, but we believe free trade has to work in favour of all, not just some,” Mr Shorten will say.
“Free trade is not a matter of two magic words – it has to deliver real benefits for working people: good jobs, better pay, new opportunities.
“We need to make sure local producers and businesses are getting the benefits of open markets – without Australian jobs falling victim to anti-competitive practices.”
Labor’s policy on metal manufacturing – announced before the last election – includes provisions to ensure Australian standards are applied to steel in federal infrastructure projects and to strengthen the anti-dumping legislation.
Labor would also introduce “more rigorous requirements” before employers can use 457 Visa workers, and lowering cost thresholds on public and private participation plans to make it easier for local businesses to bid on contracts.
Mr Shorten will also use the speech to criticise the Turnbull government for its “narrow” reliance on “export volumes in mining and increased government expenditure” for the growth of the economy, and its priorities, including the controversial same-sex marriage plebiscite which he will describe as “unnecessary, divisive and harmful”.
It comes after he described the idea of making voting in the plebiscite mandatory – while not making its result biding – as a “sick joke” to reporters in Queensland on Tuesday.
“Most Australians, I don't think actually want to be forced to come and vote on other people's relationships,” he said.
“What is the case to make gay people in Australia have to go through a rule-making process which is separate to every other Australians?
“Why is that gay people have got to climb an extra hurdle that has never been applied before in the Marriage Act?”
Labor has indicated that it will formally decide to block the plebiscite at its caucus next month, meaning that it would be unlikely for same sex marriage to be legalised in this term of government.
