Labor’s budget reply was evident of a party keeping a low profile before an election.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese promised to act on climate change and “transform our country into a renewable energy superpower”.
Hitting the mark on climate change where the Coalition missed, Labor’s climate change policy will create 604,000 new jobs by 2030 in the renewable energy sector. The announcement supports Labor’s Powering Australia plan, revealed late last year, which aims to achieve an economy-wide emissions cut of 43 per cent by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050.
But with a current skills shortage across the engineering sector, both Labor’s and the Coalition’s 2022-23 budgets need to boost their investment in a STEM skills base if Australia is to achieve “growth because of cleaner, cheaper energy powering high-value manufacturing”.
create outlines the key announcements from the budget reply relevant to engineers — some hit the mark, others represent missed opportunities.
