Local Content
Shifting sands make
policy plays vital
By IAN CAIRNS
National Manager – Industry Development
and Government Relations
National issues radar abuzz
The ASI has been maintaining its advocacy on the national front
as there is no shortage of issues calling for our industry to be
represented strongly; fairer local project procurement, antidumping,
building product compliance, new submarines and wind towers, all
of which have a significant bearing on our industrial sector. Important
is local content policy that affords our industry a fair go for bidding
for work on the much talked about major infrastructure. The lack of a
consistent policy framework between State and Federal regimes in
particular is also an issue with each jurisdiction having different or
virtually no local content policy so an integral part of our approach
is to draw from our Federal advocacy to inform local industry
participation policy in each of the States. We believe this approach
fits well with the Government’s stated objective coming into office
of cutting ‘red tape’. Broadly speaking, we are currently seeking a
lower project budget threshold for Australian Industry Participation
Plans (AIPPs) to offset the dearth in major engineering development
projects in the pipeline since the resource boom petered out. We
are also pressing strongly for the creation of a Centre of Excellence
for steel in South Australia supporting the submarine build and the
WTIA initiative. Our new Chief Executive, Tony Dixon has wasted little
time since his appointment to visit a variety of Ministers, Senators
and MPs with myself during August in Canberra taking in briefings
with the offices of the sitting and shadow industry ministers as
well as that of (then) Assistant Infrastructure Minister, Jamie Briggs
who has since been appointed Minster to head the new Cities and
Built Environment portfolio for the Turnbull Government. We also
visited the Australian Industry Participation Authority and other
key bureaucrats and associations based there. All of which should
provide a reasonable springboard to work with the new Turnbull
Administration which we are now coming to terms with. Watch
this space.
Seeking sober debate in NSW
The ASI has had its hands full of late amidst trade union and
community-led campaigns focusing on the Port Kembla steelworks
as it seeks to shore up its future through measures aimed at cutting
costs to stay viable. This intense activity has driven a cacophony of
emotional coverage that has risked creating confusion around the
official position of the complete Australian steel chain which we
represent. The ASI’s approach has been primarily to help broaden
the debate to address the interests of the broader steel community
that it’s not just the Illawarra region at stake, but the larger national
supply chain downstream too, and to confirm that we are not
pressing for the reintroduction of tariff barriers, or straight-out
mandates for local steel which have almost zero chance of success.
Our position is for a fairer playing field for local project procurement,
linking our policy prescriptions clearly with what we are advocating
nationally. We are calling for a structured and transparent approach
to local industry participation policies so that the actual level of
local engagement can be readily determined and only when those
measures fall within existing WTO guidelines to compete on an equal
footing on contestable components. We have made it clear to the
Baird Government in our representations that we support fairer trade
and believe that the best way forward is for industry and Government
to work cooperatively to secure the best economic outcomes in the
national interest. This approach helped to garner the participation of
NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, Anthony Roberts
to address our recent Convention in Sydney as a keynote speaker.
Minister Roberts outlined a number of ways his Government is
moving to support the best economic value for the State and nation,
such as requiring the NSW Procurement Board to specify public
works to the new structural steelwork standard once it is published
and that the State’s existing procurement policy includes a provision
that for projects worth $10 million or more, tenderers be required
to demonstrate how their offers will support local jobs and skills.
Suffice to say, this is particularly pertinent given that the Government
is planning on spending $20 billion on new infrastructure from
leasing its ‘poles and wires’ and we will be focussing on holding the
Government to account that these policies be enacted better, whilst
pressing for policy modifications that gel better nationally.
Lip service for local support
The election of the new Labor Government in Queensland over
the past year has refocussed the ASI’s efforts in the State to draw
out support for fairer procurement policies as encouraging signs
emerge from the new political front. The Queensland Minister for
State Development has endorsed the continuation of the Queensland
Charter of Local Content and is asking for industry to suggest ways
to strengthen it so we will be making a detailed submission on this
with the Queensland Steel Construction and Fabrication Industry
Alliance. ASI’s Queensland Manager, John Gardner and I will be
meeting soon with Senior Policy Advisor to the Minster for Main
Roads to discuss local procurement and compliance. The Government
has also sent a senior bureaucrat to Victoria to review their system
which includes provision for nominating specific major public works
with strategic project status that are required to maximise local input
where practicable. We also recently met with Robbie Katter, Leader of
the Katter Party, who is a key cross bencher in the State Parliament,
to compare notes. He was supportive of our calls for stronger local
content policy and we continue to work with him as he is a key
crossbench vote.
steel Australia – September 2015
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