Labor’s billion-dollar manufacturing fund is ripe for exploitation and pork-barrelling

The current argument over Labor’s Future Made In Australia Bill has some high stakes — more than just Labor’s dream of returning to the glory days of Australian manufacturing, or its political strategy of posing as the party of making things here at the next election.

The fund — which the government says totals over $22 billion — could become the biggest pork-barrel in political history in the wrong hands, with only a fairly flimsy “National Interest Framework” to protect taxpayer interests.

The PsiQuantum deal, which saw $900 million committed to a US company by the federal and Queensland governments, amid extraordinary secrecy and no rationale or cost-benefit analysis, could be a glimpse of the future under the bill — complete with Labor-connected lobbyists smoothing the way for the deal.

Of particular concern is the “Economic Resilience and Security Stream” of the fund, which panders to the delusion that Australia must join with other countries in onshoring production of “strategic” industries to secure supply chains in the name of sovereignty and security.