The region’s businesses are ready to play their part in the Prime Minister’s A Future Made in Australia Act, according to Bob Hawes.
Anthony Albanese announced last week that hydrogen, green metals, solar power, emerging renewable sources and technologies would form the country moving forward.
And, the Business Hunter CEO is on board, too.
“The gains being pursued in manufacturing and clean energy would come primarily from our regional communities, which would benefit from national coordination and ‘belonging’,” Mr Hawes said.
“Identifying and leveraging where the country and its regions have a comparative advantage to contribute and play a part in the delivery of this Act makes enormous sense.
“By doing this, the inefficient competitive behaviour between states can be put to one side and projects and opportunities placed where they can best be realised.
“As the Prime Minister detailed, this is a global race… and other countries are well ahead of us.
“We simply can’t afford to sit back and wonder what might have been given the endowments the nation and its regions have.
“It will be a blessing if this package moves the dial on provoking further investment into industry and the energy sector and the government having a deeper reach into this space will assist in underwriting certainty, which at times has been lacking.”
Mr Hawes said the commitment to better coordination of government action was also a positive step.
“Bringing discrete parts of existing and future policy under one umbrella is also welcomed,” he stated.
“Hopefully, it’ll ease the navigation task for business to connect with government, who’ll need to engage to get ideas and projects off the ground as we’re sure there isn’t going to be a shortage of those.
“The challenges for business and investment to date have been around approval processes, red tape and, at times, a lack of clear frameworks in which to operate.
“Clarity across these elements will result in an immediate acceleration of opportunity.”
Mr Hawes said the vision detailed by the Prime Minister was in close alignment with the broad objectives of the region.
“Mr Albanese’s address at our Special Nexus dinner revealed some strong clues as to what might feature in the national policy agenda,” he added.
Business Hunter will host its annual Summit, this year titled “A future made in the Hunter” on 27 June as a way to facilitate regional coordination and response to this important policy.
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