I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
I’m grateful for the invitation to address this second annual forum on Australia’s Economic Outlook.
Ahead of today, I looked back to the economic challenges we spoke about this time last year:
The aftershocks of the pandemic and the impact on inflation and supply chains.
The continuing devastation of conflict in Ukraine - and now the Middle East as well.
The most significant international energy crisis in half a century.
And the heavy toll of natural disasters for communities and our country.
All of that uncertainty is still with us, all those issues are still live.
Which is why the progress our economy has made through the past year stands as such a powerful tribute to the hard work and resilience of the Australian people.
This time last year, we could say with confidence that annual inflation had passed its peak.
Today, inflation is half that peak.
Unemployment remains at near 50 year lows.
The gender pay gap is at an all-time low.
Business investment is up.
Annual growth in real wages is back.
From the 1st of July, 2.6 million of the lowest paid workers in Australia will be getting a pay rise.
And every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. Not just some.
From the 1st of July, Australians will be earning more - and keeping more of what they earn.
And for the first time in nearly two decades, we are on track for back to back Budget surpluses.
From the outset, our Government has made it a priority to get fiscal policy working in concert with monetary policy.
Banking revenue upgrades, cracking down on waste.
Bringing new rigour to the infrastructure pipeline – investing in real projects, on realistic timelines, in the national interest.
Delivering better value, boosting productivity – and putting downward pressure on inflation.
Indeed, by taking $300 off the power bill of every Australian household from the 1st of July as well as delivering a second consecutive increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
Our cost of living relief is expected to cut three quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year, and another half a per cent next year.
I want to emphasise this: we are getting inflation down – not in spite of the help we are providing with the cost of living but because of it.
We are focused on winning the fight against inflation.
Helping families and businesses deal with the pressures they are facing here and now.
And while we do this, we always have an eye on the future, for the opportunities ahead.
Because that’s the responsibility of Government, that’s the balance you have to bear in mind.
You can look all the way back to John Curtin and Ben Chifley and the creation of the Ministry for Post War Reconstruction at the end of 1942.
Those were the very darkest days of the war, the most testing times any Australian Government has ever known.
Yet they were already planning for the society and economy they wanted to build in peacetime.
It’s something I spoke about during the pandemic – the responsibility we had to aim for more than just getting through the crisis and putting it behind us.
Learning the lessons - and applying them - to build something better.
That’s what our plan for a Future Made in Australia is all about.
Building our economic sovereignty and strengthening our energy security - so we’re no longer the last link in the global supply chain.
Deepening and diversifying our trade links - what we trade and who we trade with – so we’re not overly reliant on any one country or commodity.
Moving ourselves up the international value chain with our quality products and our services and expertise.
And investing in clean energy to power a new generation of advanced manufacturing.
Making Australia a renewable energy superpower – and making more things here.
Right now, we are in the early stages of the most significant global economic change since the industrial revolution - and also the most clearly signposted.
Nations representing 92 per cent of the world economy are committed to net zero.
This includes 97 per cent of Australia’s trading partners.
We don’t need Andrew Clennell’s crystal ball to see where the global economy is heading.
We know the destination - and we know how virtually every nation plans to get there.
By embracing clean energy: solar power, wind power, green hydrogen.
And in order to meet their targets, every nation will need more of the resources and technology that go into producing this energy: the metals and critical minerals and rare earths that Australia has in such abundance.
According to the International Energy Agency, without any change to current policies mineral demand for clean energy technologies will double between now and 2030.
If countries continue to ramp up their efforts to meet net zero, demand will triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.
This is not a bubble, or a blip.
It’s not a nuclear fantasy dreamed up to delay real action on climate change.
This is not a passing economic shock – it is a lasting economic shift.
And Australia is home to everything we need to put ourselves at the very centre of it.
Catering to new and growing global demand for our resources.
And converting the global imperative to cut emissions into a national source of comparative advantage.
Because we are moving to a world where the emissions profile of a product will become an increasingly significant consideration and cost factor.
That’s part of the new global competition we are in - one that puts a premium on manufacturing powered by clean energy on green metals and critical minerals and on co-locating extraction and processing and manufacturing, minimising transport costs and emissions.
Winning the race for these new opportunities isn’t about cutting wages, or cutting corners.
It’s about safe, skilled and sustainable work.
In other words: if you could have designed a global economic opportunity from scratch - you could not have created a better starting position for Australia.
We have a strong foundation – now we have to build on it.
That’s why we legislated our emissions targets the first time Parliament sat, backed by so many of you in this room.
That’s why we created our Safeguard Mechanism – providing the framework and certainty for Australian businesses to invest in reducing their emissions.
Our Rewiring the Nation policy and Capacity Investment Scheme are making overdue investments in the national energy grid, after a decade of neglect when it was allowed to fall into disrepair.
And last month’s Budget delivered new incentives to drive business investment in critical minerals and green hydrogen.
New Production Tax Credits that reward companies which move first, invest and create jobs.
And new funding to speed up project approvals.
Cutting red tape for local investment in renewables and making the framework for foreign investment simpler and stronger.
This is where our new Future Made in Australia Act will provide commercial rigour, ensure value for public money and help us attract more private capital.
Because Australian small business and Australian families already know the value of renewable energy and they’re investing in it.
1 in 3 small businesses have rooftop solar - and nearly 1 in 5 have a battery storage system.
Last year, around 330,000 homes and businesses installed rooftop solar.
Building on 316,000 the year before.
New South Wales - on its own - added 1 gigawatt of solar capacity, a record for any state or territory.
Our Government wants to continue to support the take-up and roll-out of solar for small businesses and households.
And we also see big opportunities here for superannuation funds and institutional investors to drive the national energy transition.
We will work with industry to deliver bankable projects in generation, transmission, critical minerals and beyond.
From the outset, I’ve made it clear that we are not looking to go dollar for dollar with the United States Inflation Reduction Act or copy wholesale the approach of the European Union or Japan or the Republic of Korea or the many other advanced economies that are working to grow their industrial base.
Australia has to do this our way.
We can’t rely on sheer weight of numbers - we have to be smart and strategic and play to our strengths.
That includes our expertise as an outward-looking, trading economy, a trusted middle power, a partner and provider of choice.
Because while nearly every nation is currently seeking greater economic resilience for itself. For most, this is more about diversifying their supply chains rather than becoming entirely self-reliant.
Buying from a broader range of partners, rather than making it themselves.
That’s another big advantage Australia brings to the table.
The skills and productivity of our workers, the stability of our democracy and financial institutions.
The connections created by our diaspora communities and the proximity we have to the fastest-growing region of the world in human history.
So making our future in Australia means investing in skills and science, start-ups and small business as well.
Too often in the past when Australian researchers have made a world-leading breakthrough, they’ve had to go overseas to commercialise it.
We want to change that.
We want to see more Australian discoveries create more Australian jobs.
A strong manufacturing base helps build the ecosystem that supports this.
The culture of innovation and ideas, in businesses big and small. The opportunities for companies with complementary skills and objectives to learn and compete.
And of course, you need to invest in people to make this work.
That’s why our Government is funding another 300,000 fee-free TAFE places from this year, on top of the 350,000 we delivered last year.
We’re massively expanding fee-free enabling courses and opening more university hubs in regional centres and in our growing outer suburbs.
We know education opens the doors of opportunity – and we’re making sure that cost and distance don’t block the way.
That’s what our new prac payment is about – supporting the next generation of teachers and nurses and social workers while they do their placements.
And that’s why we’ve intervened to wipe $3 billion in student debt and make the system fairer for Australian students and graduates into the future.
Because we need Australians studying and learning those vital new skills in robotics and digital and engineering and cyber.
We need a new generation of carpenters and mechanics and electricians and plumbers and welders to build more homes, new infrastructure and more clean energy – from rooftop solar to large-scale.
And we need to support and sustain this economic growth by investing in the surrounding infrastructure and services.
The roads and rail, ports and airports – and new best-practice facilities like the intermodal terminal at Moorebank and the one to be built at Beveridge.
Projects that boost productivity and make it easier for products to get to market – and people to get where they need to be.
As well as the schools and hospitals and housing that make us a community and a society, not just an economy.
In the past two months, going around the country talking to people about our plan, I’ve spoken about the new jobs and opportunities it can bring to our regional communities.
Whether it’s Gladstone in Queensland becoming a global hub for green metals and green hydrogen.
New downstream processing opportunities in Port Hedland in Western Australia.
Or new solar manufacturing jobs at the site of the old Liddell power station.
But just as our Budget was about delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer and energy bill relief for every household, our plan for a future made in Australia seeks to bring new growth, new secure jobs and new opportunities to every part of our country.
Our cities and suburbs, as well as our regional communities.
And businesses and workers across the economy.
That’s why I spoke about this plan to manufacturing and transport and mining and energy and construction workers in Adelaide on Wednesday.
And why I’ve made it the focus of my speech today.
This plan – like our Government - is pro-worker and pro-business.
We want every Australian to share in this opportunity for our nation.
And we need to draw on the talents of our whole population.
We need to move now.
For the global economy, net zero is the future.
And our choice is simple – either we shape that future, or the future shapes us.
This is no time for the negativity that says Australian businesses and workers can’t compete and shouldn’t try.
This is a time to aim high and build big - not settle for the self-defeating view that says the best Australia can do is watch someone else, somewhere else, add value to our resources before we buy them back at a higher price.
Our Government has spent two years working to turn around the neglect of the national energy grid and repairing the damage that climate denial did to clean energy investment and our international relationships.
Australia cannot afford to go back to the days when energy policy was about fighting for power in the Coalition party room rather than powering the nation.
And we cannot afford to waste 15 years down a rabbit hole about nuclear reactors.
Because just as we will not find our security in isolation, we will not build our prosperity by standing still.
Every business leader in this room understands that the world isn’t waiting around for Australia.
You didn’t get to the top of your fields by hoping opportunity would come knocking on your door.
And you didn’t stay at the top by assuming that whatever had brought you success in the past, guaranteed you would succeed in the future.
You have built your success by anticipating change – and shaping it.
Seeking new markets, looking to add value.
Investing in innovation and research and development, embracing the productivity gains of new technology.
Identifying your own sources of comparative advantage, building your own competitive edge.
And you undertake all of this with the understanding that it is a constant, evolving process.
In business, there is no final point of perfection.
In economic reform, there is no last word.
In government there are always new pressures to manage, new challenges to meet, new global uncertainties to confront.
But I can tell you, two years after I had the extraordinary honour of being elected Prime Minister of this nation, I have never been more optimistic about Australia’s future and never been more determined to deliver for the Australian people.
Because when you look at where the world is heading and when you look at what we have here - this moment is made for us.
This moment is made for the dynamism and drive of Australian business, the skills and smarts of Australian workers.
This moment is made for the aspiration and creativity and resilience of our people.
This is an opportunity made for every one of us – and now it’s up to every one of us to make the most of it.
To make our future, right here in Australia.