Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT
[check against delivery]
Anyone who doubts the potential of the Australian textiles, clothing and footwear industries should have a look around this showcase.
The story of TCF in Australia is not a story of doom and gloom.
It’s the story of vibrant, high-tech, creative industries with a great future.
The evidence for that is all around us.
It’s essential that we build on the sector’s outstanding capabilities and proven success to develop new opportunities, new products, new technologies, and new markets – all with an eye on the ultimate prize, which is quality, sustainable jobs.
Innovation
To do that we need to forget about competing with low-cost producers at the bottom of the market and follow the example of other developed countries that have repositioned their TCF industries at the high end.
Countries like Germany, which leads the world in technical textiles – or like Italy, which is the last word in fashion.
We need to change our thinking about TCF.
There is already a huge amount of innovation going on.
New products are being created all the time, but that’s only part of it.
The sector is redefining itself through technical, design, organisational and supply chain innovation.
Much of the most exciting work is being done by small and medium-sized firms.
Our challenge is to accelerate that process and make it a feature of everything we do.
That’s why it’s so pleasing to see the research and education sectors represented here by:
• CSIRO;
• Deakin University;
• Queensland’s Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE;
• RMIT; and
• the Whitehouse Institute of Design.
The industry should see these institutions as an integral part of its supply chain.
They supply ideas and skills, and there are few inputs more critical to innovative businesses than those.
TCF review
There are too many great products on display here to name them all, but I am impressed with the Total Measurement Solutions
3-D body scanner.
Professor Roy Green may have had this technology in mind when he recommended a new Australian National Sizing Standard in his report on Australia’s TCF industries.
The report was released last Friday and completes our quadrella of reviews – with the other three focusing on the national innovation system, the Cooperative Research Centre Program, and the car industry.
The TCF report – called Building Innovative Capability – makes a powerful intellectual case for industry policy and a powerful practical case for supporting this industry in particular.
It is a credit to Professor Green, to the expert reference group that supported him, and to the many stakeholders who made submissions and contributed ideas during the consultation process – my thanks to all of you.
The report makes fifteen forward-looking recommendations to strengthen Australia’s TCF industries.
The headline recommendation is that we should move away from structural adjustment support and instead focus on building competitive advantage by developing innovative capabilities at the enterprise level.
In order to achieve this, Professor Green proposes boosting assistance from the $170 million already committed between 2010 and 2015 to $250 million – an increase of 47 per cent.
The report has been hotly debated over the weekend, and so it should be.
What’s being proposed here is a profound cultural shift – a transformation as radical as the one John Button brought about in the eighties.
If we want it to succeed, we need all the constructive engagement we can get.
Professor Green quotes Machiavelli to the effect that there is nothing more difficult, perilous or uncertain than introducing a new order of things.
In fact, there is one thing more perilous, and that’s sticking with business as usual when the world around you is changing.
We simply can’t afford to do that.
The important thing to remember is that this is not a pessimistic report.
Professor Green argues that there are real grounds for optimism about the future of TCF in this country – if we focus on developing our capacity for innovation and if we make the right decisions now.
I couldn’t agree more.
And when I say “we”, I don’t just mean the Government.
The industry has to make the right decisions, too.
Some people have already suggested that the increase in support proposed by Professor Green is not enough.
Others will argue that it is too much.
There will always be debate about the adequacy of support.
The Government will have to balance these competing claims as it develops its policy response.
Ultimately, what really matters is how the support is used.
Professor Green has argued that it should not be used simply to facilitate structural adjustment or underwrite the viability of the industry.
Instead it should be used to drive innovation.
That’s the way to make the sector more productive and competitive.
That’s the way to increase its contribution to the economy and society overall.
And that’s the way to secure its future.
The future
This showcase demonstrates what cooperation and collaboration can achieve.
The various branches of the industry, their workers, the union, and the research and education sectors can all take a bow.
The Australian Government actively supports their efforts.
We have an effective partnership here, and it is essential that we continue working together.
The future of TCF in Australia depends on it.