Textiles manufacturing has made huge contributions to Australia’s industrial, technological and social development. That sector made colonial Victoria an economic powerhouse.

Imported technologies like the Singer sewing machine boosted productivity. And the women who worked in the sector – and led tailoresses’ unions and anti-sweating campaigns – were pioneers of Victorian trade unionism and industrial democracy.

That history is central to the story of modern Australia. And like other industries, modern textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing is finding ways to meet the efficiency and productivity needs of a changing economy.

The poet Dorothea Mackellar famously said that we live in a sunburnt country. It’s also a drought-prone country. Economic resilience means enhancing local industry in a way that doesn’t put extra pressure on our water supply. Equally, it means building more energy for new industries and making modern manufacturing technologies more energy efficient.

Those questions are most obvious in new industries like AI and data centre development. But traditional industries also have a role to play in driving efficiency and economic resilience. Textiles manufacturing is responsible for roughly 20 per cent of worldwide industrial water pollution today.

Recently, with the Member for Corangamite Libby Coker, I visited Xefco, a world-leading textile manufacturing startup located at the ManuFutures hub at Deakin University’s Geelong waterfront campus. Thanks to a $4.99 million matched funding grant from the Albanese Government’s Industry Growth Program, Xefco can commercialise and grow its world-first Ausora® textile-dyeing technology.

Ausora® is a water-free dyeing and finishing process for application in textile manufacturing. It eliminates wastewater, almost eliminates chemical consumption and delivers 90% energy savings. And unlike some earlier waves of technological adoption in that sector, Ausora® is owned and developed by Australians, elevating Australia’s standing in a global market valued at more than $2 trillion.

Nobody discovers this kind of technology alone. Ausora® is the product of deep collaboration with Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials, the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre and the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres. It’s a classic Geelong story that shows how Australian research excellence supports industrial excellence.

Australia has world-class researchers in our universities, industries and national science agencies. We also have remarkable, innovative businesses. What we have not always possessed is a truly national, mission-oriented research and development system that can connect the two.

The independent Ambitious Australia report, released earlier this year, sets out what a more coherent approach looks like. That report calls for less fragmentation and more strategic focus in Australian R&D. It sets out a big reform agenda that will not be delivered in a single term of government, let alone a single Budget.

But this year’s Federal Budget takes the first crucial steps to making sure the Xefco story can be repeated right across Australia.

First, the Government is establishing a new National Resilience and Science Council to better coordinate public sector investment in research and development, aligning that effort more closely with key national priorities. This cornerstone reform will replace pre-pandemic frameworks with a more mission-oriented, fit for purpose Council that turns the best scientific advice into economic and industrial success for Australia.  

Second, our package of tax reforms will retarget the Research and Development Tax Incentive for greater impact. The Budget lowers the intensity threshold and lifts the maximum expenditure threshold, both of which make Australia a more attractive place for large manufacturing firms to invest in R&D.

The Government is also expanding venture capital tax incentives from 1 July next year, encouraging more investment and unlocking more private capital for young, growing firms with real innovative potential. These, coupled with loss carry-back reforms and a permanent footing for the $20,000 Instant Asset Write-Off, are unapologetically pro-innovation measures that encourage responsible risk-taking and resilience.

Finally, this Budget invests more in Australia’s public science agencies, so they can make the biggest possible contribution to national productivity and resilience. That includes more than $387 million for the CSIRO over the next four years, along with additional funding for the ongoing refit of CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong.

Strengthening Australian research and development is not peripheral to the Albanese Government’s productivity agenda; it is an essential component of our plan to boost innovation and investment, support job creation and create a more productive and resilient economy.

It’s how Australia will grow more startups like Xefco, and develop more first-of-a-kind technologies like Ausora®. It’s how Australia can provide more good manufacturing and science jobs for Australians in suburbs and regional communities like Geelong.

It’s how we make Australian industry more resource-efficient and productive – and as a result, more resilient and fit to face an unsteady world.