The $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, one of the largest peacetime industry investments, has become more important due to tightening capital markets, Industry Minister Ed Husic says.
Mr Husic will launch the fund with a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday, where he will say it is not driven by “some rose-tinted nostalgia for the old days of Australian manufacturing”.
Ed Husic says the $15 billion NRF will be one of the biggest peacetime investments in industry. Alex Ellinghausen
“In reclaiming the idea of a country that makes things, there is the potential to reimagine and reshape what we as a people could achieve, together. To reinvigorate faith in Australian ideas and know-how.”
The fund will be an off-budget loan scheme to facilitate the manufacture of products domestically. It is one of several off-budget funds, worth $47 billion, which Labor promised before the election.
As well as the National Reconstruction Fund, there are funds to improve the NBN, rebuild the east coast electricity transmission network, and construct thousands of low-cost housing units.
