MUA Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth Inquiry into the prudential regulation of investment in Australia’s export industries

We submitted that as a labour union representing the workforce involved in key elements of supply chains servicing Australia’s export industries we have a vital interest in the success and transformation of Australia’s existing export industries and the companies (including new entrants) in those industries so they are sustainable, productive and efficient, and actively contribute to Australia’s pollution reduction obligations and responsibilities under the Paris Climate Agreement.

We noted that will requires substantial new investment.  We submitted that we want to see investment in new export industries (or in existing industries so they transform to zero carbon production through use of renewable energy to power production and application of new carbon free production processes), many of which will create new export opportunities, requiring secure, reliable and sustainable transportation, particularly shipping in the export component of those supportive supply chains. 

We said that what is critically important to the MUA and the workforce it represents, particularly those segments of the workforce employed on ships and associated onshore roles in ports supporting carbon emitting offshore oil and gas projects and existing high energy intensity manufacturing industries is that Australia develops and adopts long term and robust industrial policy frameworks, support by substantial public and private capital, to transform those industries and in so doing, transition the workforce so no worker is disadvantaged.

In that context, we welcomed the intervention of Australia's financial regulators who are rightly and responsibly responding to market signals and to international frameworks to which Australia has voluntarily signed on to, in providing guidance to investors and financial institutions aimed at assisting those investors and financial institutions in dealing with current and emerging investment risk. Those regulators would be failing in their statutory duty if they did not provide that guidance. It is essential to the stability, purpose and ethical behaviour of financial markets.

Read the MUA Submission Here MUA Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth Inquiry into the prudential regulation of investment in Australia’s export industries