In early May, SEMMA’s Honi Walker and Peter Angelico launched its milestone Manufacturing BLUEPRINT at one the industry’s largest Australian events.
The South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) launched its Australian Manufacturing BLUEPRINT at Australian Manufacturing Week (AMW2025).
“This is a document designed to start a conversation with our policy makers about the legislative changes needed to ensure SME manufacturers receive the focus that as an industry, has underwritten Australia’s economy for decades,” said SEMMA CEO Honi Walker. “This document uses five pillars of growth to invigorate industry: Economic, Energy, Expand, Educate and Evolve.
“SEMMA’s overarching policy objective is to enable economic growth in manufacturing from 5.9 per cent (currently) to 10 per cent GDP by 2030.”
Under each pillar, SEMMA has focused on areas that represent opportunities of growth in manufacturing policy across Australia.
Image: SEMMA
“Our Economic pillar calls for a Set & Cap Tax Rate of 15 per cent for SME Manufacturers. Reducing the business tax rate to 15 per cent could save businesses $200k (on average] per year, potentially supporting a three per cent annual wage increase,” said Walker.
SEMMA would also like to see no or low Interest SME business loans.
“Reducing business loan rates to below two per cent could boost capital investment and drive GDP growth. Sweden has a GDP of $584,96B and a loan rate of 1.75 per cent. Manufacturing accounted for 14.19 per cent of GDP in 2023, according to the World Bank,” said Walker.
SEMMA said reducing the Golden Tax Exit to 10 per cent from family businesses [with fewer than 100 staff and $25m turnover] on sales would encourage IP transfer and business consolidation – improving productivity, efficiency and Australia’s GDP.
It also believes introducing a capital allowance scheme instead of tax cuts would also encourage value-added work, productivity and automation. Selling machine time at reduced rates could increase equipment utility by 40 per cent, meeting key industry needs in defence, rail and construction. This shift from asset focus to net and reinvestment focus would support wage growth.
Its Energy pillar calls for a stable, sustainable and affordable energy supply with a Cap system for larger users.
SEMMA’s Expand pillar encourages SME growth and innovation through R&D, 4.0 and automation.
Educate is SEMMA’s fourth policy pillar and ensures Australia’s workforce is skilled and trained in this business transformation.
SEMMA’s fifth policy pillar is Evolve. This policy ensures the regulatory framework is sized accordingly and does not inhibit growth – a one-size-fits-all approach has not worked for SMEs who face different challenges from large manufacturers.
“Let industry lead our policy makers to successful economic evolution to ensure we retain our sovereign capability, encourage capital investment and grow wages, lift our standard of living and meet our 10 per cent GDP by 2030,” said SEMMA president, Peter Angelico.
SEMMA will be rolling out presentations and holding strategic meetings to promote the BLUEPRINT throughout 2025-26.
Download your copy of the Australian Manufacturing BLUEPRINT from
www.semma.com.au/member-resources