Advocacy

TTNA Advocacy and the New Government
The TTNA's Advocacy Officer will be discussing issues with the new Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research - Senator Carr - over the next few months, concerning the new government's policy document "An Innovation Future for Australian Industry". Click here to read the whole document. Your comments would be appreciated. Please send them to the TTNA Management Office at lorraine@ttna.com.au before 19th December 2007 to be collated into an action plan for the TTNA.

Textile, Clothing and Footwear Post-2005 Strategic Investment Program (TCF Post-2005 SIP) Scheme
The following is from AusIndustry's website: The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Strategic Investment Program was extended for 10 years through to 2015. The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Post-2005 Strategic Investment Program Scheme (TCF Post-2005 (SIP) Scheme) aims to foster the development of a sustainable and internationally competitive TCF manufacturing industry and TCF design industry in Australia by providing incentives which will promote investment and innovation. It is an entitlement program which provides incentives in the form of reimbursement grants, paid annually and in arrears. The program will run from 2005/06 until 2014/15.

Please click here for a copy of the TCF Post-2005 (SIP) Scheme document, last amended 30 March 2007.
This can also be downloaded by following the internet links from the AusIndustry SIP homepage at:
www.ausindustry.gov.au (links to AusIndustry Products then TCF Post-2005 SIP Scheme then TCF Post-2005 SIP Scheme). (The final link noted on the page exits the SIP homepage to an external site that hosts all current compilations of Commonwealth legislation.)

The Post 2005 Package and the TTNA
Click Here to Download the TTNA’s submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry - Post 2005 TCF Assistance Arrangements. 
Close to all our hearts in 2003 was the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission (PC) Inquiry into assistance arrangements for the TCF industry post 2005. During the course of the year the TTNA worked closely with the PC and subsequently with the Government to produce a package for the sustainability and betterment of the technical and nonwoven textile industry.

The TTNA was and still is fully supportive of the package which reflects much of the views argued by industry and the PC. In essence, the Government decided to continue to assist firms facing adjustment because of tariff reductions by a continuation of the TCF Strategic Investment Program (SIP):

• $600 million extension of the Strategic Investment Program (SIP) 2005-2015,
  commencing 1 July 2005.
• $500 million for 2005-2010 – modest redirection of current scheme towards those sectors (i.e. clothing and finished textiles) which employ most of the TCF workforce and face the greatest tariff adjustment. The scheme will be simplified to provide an (approx) 80% innovation subsidy and an (approx) 40% capital investment subsidy. The range of eligible activities for capital investment will be expanded. Firms will be able to include expenditure on brand support of up to $3m pa. This will not have to relate to innovative products. Clothing and finished textile firms will also be able to include expenditure of up to $2m pa for their IT expenditure.
• From 2005 technical textile and leather firms will only be eligible for the capital investment subsidy.
• $100 million for 2010-2015 – available only to clothing and finished textile firms (i.e. those firms facing a further tariff reduction in 2015). Subsidy rates will be developed closer to 2010.
• Within the SIP program, provision for a $25 million grants-based program to support small businesses, to run for 10 years.

• $50 million import credit scheme. An import credit scheme offering credits of up to $5m pa to clothing and finished textile firms which achieve growth in their production (measured over a three year rolling average). The scheme will run from 2005 to 2015. Credits will be non-transferable and limited to entry of finished clothing and textiles.
• $50 million structural adjustment fund from 2005 to 2015. The program will allow case-by-case support to assist workers displaced by large plant closures. Assistance could include training vouchers available to workers assessed as at high risk of becoming long-term unemployed
• $20 million supply chain program for clothing and finished textile sector. This program will run from 2010 to 2015, with $20 million for competitive grants to support major capital investments which strengthen the local supply chain for the clothing and finished textiles sector. The scheme will be open to clothing and finished textile companies (and related textile suppliers) not receiving benefits
  through SIP.
• $27 million duty forgone under EOAP. The Expanded Overseas Assembly Provisions Scheme will be extended to 2010 at an estimated cost of $5-6 million per annum.
• As recommended by the Productivity Commission, a gradual ten year program of tariff reduction will be implemented. Tariffs will be frozen at the 2005 level until 1 January 2010. In 2010, the 10% tariff on cotton sheets, woven fabrics, footwear and carpets, and the 7.5% tariff on sleeping bags, table linen and footwear parts, will be reduced to 5%. In 2010 the 17.5% tariff on clothing and finished textiles will be reduced from 17.5% to 10%. This 10% tariff on clothing and finished textiles will be reduced to 5% in January 2015.

The TTNA lobbied hard in order that the technical & nonwoven sector be included in the package. Indeed, there we rumblings that we may have been excluded. As tariffs for the technical textiles sector have been at 5% since the mid 1990s, one concession is that technical textile firms will only be eligible for Type 1 grants for new capital investment. To ameliorate this impact, the Minister has proposed amending the current TCF SIP Act to remove the 5% value added cap applying to Type 3 grants. Assuming the Government is able to amend the legislation, this will increase the amount of support technical textile firms can draw from the scheme in 2003/04 and 2004/05.

To this end, there will be a number of issues on which the TTNA will work with Government where the detail of the new package needs to be resolved.