Extract from ABC News
A Queensland mining firm has become the first recipient of NRM funding. (Instagram: Russell Mineral Equipment)
In short:
The federal government has announced Queensland-based mining equipment firm Russell Mineral Equipment is the first recipient of taxpayer investment under the National Reconstruction Fund.
The $40 million grant announcement came more than two years after the fund was first promised.
What's next?
Industry Minister Ed Husic says "a dozen' more NRF funding announcements will be made before the next federal election.
The first business to receive taxpayer investment under an Albanese government election pledge to keep manufacturing in Australia has been announced more than two years after it was promised.
Russell Mineral Equipment (RME), a regional Queensland-based mining equipment firm, has been given $40 million from the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF), an investment the government says will ensure the firm stays in Australian hands.
The NRF invests taxpayer funds in the form of loans, equity investments or loan guarantees to local manufacturing firms showing potential to expand, with the intention being that the government gets a return on its investment.
Industry Minister Ed Husic told the ABC this was the first of what would be "a dozen" funding announcements from the NRF in the months before the federal election.
"What we don't want to see is Australian firms leaving our shores because they don't get the support they need at the right times," he said.
The government framed the fund as a post-pandemic measure to shore up Australia's supply chain and reduce vulnerability to global pressures.
The federal govenrment's Industry Minister Ed Husic says "a dozen" National Reconstruction Fund announcements will be made before the next election. (AAP: Lukas Coch)
Chair of the NRF, Martijn Wilder AM, said the investment was the first step in backing leading Australian manufacturers.
RME is based in Toowoomba, on Queensland's Darling Downs, and makes mill relining technologies that are used in hard-rock mining for minerals and metals such as copper, gold, platinum, nickel, zinc and iron ore.
RME executive chairman John Russell said the investment would ensure the business "remains an Australian-owned and operated company based in Queensland".
The opposition has previously criticised the NRF for taking too long to be set up and make investments, but Mr Husic has defended the time taken, arguing giving out taxpayer dollars is "not like pumping out a grant".
"The big difference between what we are doing with the NRF and what the Coalition has done with grants is we are making decisions in the national interest," he said.
Mr Husic said the NRF was set up as an independent body to keep investment decisions at arm's length from the government.
He said the board had taken time to determine which companies were a safe investment, but acknowledged "circumstances beyond the control of firms" could mean the government's investment would not produce the expected return.
He said the details of when the government could expect a return were likely to be "commercial in confidence".
Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the government's promise to save Australian manufacturing had been broken.
"It has taken Labor over 900 days to announce a single investment through their National Reconstruction Fund," she said.
"Over that time we have seen 1,272 manufacturers go to the wall."
The $40 million investment in RME is part of a broader $100 million co-investment fund set up between the NRF Corporation and private equity group Resource Capital Funds, which promises to make investments in similar mining services companies.
Laws to set up the NRF passed parliament in March 2023, after the Greens struck a deal with the government to include amendments explicitly ruling out using the fund to invest in coal, gas and native forest logging.
Any revenue the government makes from its investments has to be reinvested back into the scheme to support other projects.
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