The Australian National Audit Office has named the Modern Manufacturing Initiative as one of its potential audits this financial year.
The MMI program,set up in October 2020,offered $1.3 billion in grants in three streams,known as translation,collaboration and integration. Unlike other grants programs,the guidelines for the collaboration stream said:“The prime minister decides which applications are successful.”
The list of 17 projects,examined byThe Herald andThe Age,included help for six safe Coalition seats with projects in O’Connor,Gippsland,Fairfax,Fadden,Durack and two projects in Flynn – a target seat for Labor early in the election campaign.
This included $33 million for a food manufacturing precinct in the seat of Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland,announced at a press conference on March 24 where local MP Ted O’Brien hailed the “very big lick of money” for jobs. It also included $52 million for Gilmour Space Technologies in the seat of Fadden on the Gold Coast,with a press release on March 25 quoting local MP Stuart Robert on the boost to jobs.
The grants also went to two seats held by the Liberals but targeted by Labor. Morrison visited the electorate of Chisholm on April 4 to announce $23 million for the Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise at Monash University alongside Liberal MP Gladys Liu,who lost the seat to Labor challenger Carina Garland.
A $61 million commitment to cancer research and the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre,now known as Omico,was unveiled on March 17 at the Garvan Institute near the electorate of Wentworth with Liberal MP Dave Sharma,who attended the announcement. The institute is located in the safe Labor electorate of Sydney,three blocks from the border with Wentworth,the blue-ribbon seat the government fought hard to keep but ultimately lost to independent Allegra Spender.
The collaboration stream also included projects in several seats held by Labor but targeted by the Liberals. Three days before the election,the government announced a grant in the seat of Eden-Monaro for the Australian Satellite Manufacturing Hub with Liberal candidate Jerry Nockles. Some of the project is based in Jerrabomberra,south of Queanbeyan.
The spending decisions also included funding for Boeing Defence Australia,based in Brisbane,to develop the Advanced Defence Aerospace Manufacturing Network. This was announced on April 21 with comments from Peter Dutton,then the defence minister,about the number of jobs to be created in Queensland.
As a result,10 of the 17 projects in the collaboration stream were in Coalition electorates. None of the announcements quoted Labor local members.
Among the significant grants to Labor electorates,the government backed the Australian Space Manufacturing Hub at Adelaide Airport in the seat of Hindmarsh,a project to create an Advanced Steel Manufacturing Precinct at Port Kembla Steelworks in the seat of Cunningham,and promised $22 million for the Sovereign Combat System Collaboration Centre at Mawson Lakes in South Australia in the electorate of Makin.
A spokesman for Morrison said the former prime minister needed to give final approval because the projects covered several ministerial portfolios,such as health and defence,and involved large sums of money. The spokesman said Morrison accepted funding recommendations from then-industry minister Angus Taylor without any amendment.
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