Albanese announces $500m boost for clean energy manufacturing

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a $500 million investment package for clean energy manufacturing jobs during a speech at the Whitlam dinner on Friday night.

The funding, part of the Future Made in Australia Fund, aims to support communities built around steelmaking and aluminium processing industries, which Albanese described as “vital” to Australia’s economic and national security.

The initiative will begin with wind tower fabrication, with Albanese emphasising the importance of domestic steel production. “Every new wind tower needs hundreds of tonnes of steel. Why should that steel come from anywhere but here?” he said.

The government plans to establish new local content requirement targets for state and territory governments to purchase from Australian manufacturers. This latest investment adds to the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund, administered by ARENA, which was announced in last year’s federal budget.

The announcement follows Thursday’s $500 million federal package to support the Whyalla steelworks transition, which entered administration earlier this week. The rescue fund could preserve approximately 3,100 direct and indirect jobs at the facility, which produces 75 per cent of Australia’s structural steel.

However, the clean energy push has faced opposition. Earlier this month, anti-offshore wind farm campaigners heckled Albanese during his visit to BlueScope Steelworks in Wollongong.

In his speech, which also served as a pre-election address, Albanese criticised the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s record in the previous government, stating the upcoming election represented a choice between “cleaning up the mess of the decade of a Coalition government or seizing the opportunities of the next decade.”

Picture: credit Australian Labor Party