For too long, environmental sustainability and creating more jobs in the manufacturing and energy production sectors have been seen as incompatible with one another. The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) rejects this framing. Our union — which organises and represents almost 70,000 members from every city and region of Australia — believes that the international shift to renewable energy represents an unprecedented opportunity to revive our nation’s battered but resilient manufacturing sector.
Our union is proud to be a democratic organisation. It is run by members, for members. That is why this policy paper is framed around the experiences and ideas of our workplace leaders. Between them, they have decades of experience in the manufacturing sector, and they have a deep knowledge of the challenges it faces. Their testimonies are accompanied by a series of policy proposals that we believe would position the Australian manufacturing industry for significant growth in the decades to come.
The policies sketched in this document would not be enough to make Australia the green manufacturing superpower we believe it can be, but they would be an excellent start.