Over the last thirty years Queensland has lost thousands of jobs in manufacturing as Labor and the LNP allowed crucial manufacturing industries to be offshored. The COVID-19 crisis has proved we should never have allowed Australia or Queensland to lose so much of its manufacturing capacity.
It’s time to revive manufacturing in Queensland. But we can’t leave it up to the private sector. If we want to create the conditions for a thriving manufacturing industry in Queensland where every Queenslander enjoys the benefits, we need genuine public investment.
The Greens will revive manufacturing in Queensland and create thousands of good, secure jobs by establishing thriving solar panel, wind turbine and green steel manufacturing industries.
Queensland can manufacture the steel, solar panels and wind turbines that power not just Queensland and Australia, but the world.
The Greens will establish:
- A publicly owned solar panel factory in Townsville and wind turbine factory in Rockhampton to lay the foundations for a thriving renewable manufacturing industry in North and Central Queensland capable of manufacturing a combined 500MW of wind and solar capacity per year by 2023, creating 1,500 jobs a year
- Aim for a further 1000MW of private solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing capacity by 2027, creating a further 3000 jobs
- A prototype green steel manufacturing plant in Gladstone aiming to begin production within 5 years providing the foundation to establish a green steel industry that will create 15,000 good, secure jobs
- Strict local content rules phased in by 2027
- 60% locally sourced manufacturing content for all utility scale wind and solar energy projects by 2027
- No labour hire in the local supply chain
- A Queensland Manufacturing Authority with $1 billion of seed funding to provide low interest loans and grants to fund clean energy manufacturing projects in Queensland