If Australia is to have a Carbon Tax/ Emissions Trading Scheme, then our government needs to look very closely at our manufacturing industries in Australia.
Australian Manufacturers have been ignored by successive governments over the years. With the ALP adding the unnecessary tariff of a carbon tax, then we need to act fast to secure our ability as a nation to manufacture.
One only has to look at the European countries that have allowed their manufacturing base to disappear to see the dangers of losing the ability to manufacture. DLP Senator John Madigan has consistently fought in the Senate for manufacturing and is well known for his statement “a country is what a country makes”.
Manufacturing not only reduces our reliance on foreign imports, it is a crucial component of our defence strategy, reduces our trade deficit and builds strong communities and skills in the country’s regional centres where a great portion of our manufacturing resides.
The DLP also considers food processing in this category and has been at the forefront in helping and promoting the re-opening and establishment of new co-operatives that provide low cost, high quality food products while adding a stable market for our primary producers. Co-operatives are at the heart of the DLP’s economic model of Distributism whereby the owners are the workers and profits are shared by the owners, workers and the communities they operate in.
The DLP will soon release its Manufacturing Tax Package.