Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained the federal government’s flagship $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) is “open for business” despite it currently only receiving expressions of interest through a contact form.

During a testy radio interview on Monday, Albanese was questioned on the manufacturing fund and the apparent lack of ways for companies to apply for money through it.

The NRF was a key election policy from Labor and was passed into law in March last year, coming into effect in July.

In November the fund’s investment mandate was unveiled.

Albanese said the fund is “operating” and “open for business”, despite the lack of an official application process so far.

“The National Reconstruction Fund is open for business from November,” Albanese said.

“It is open and businesses can look at the investment mandate, put together a proposition, that doesn’t take a matter of weeks or days…what it does take is time to have proper consideration, because part of that investment mandate is that a return has to be produced of two and three per cent above the five-year bond rate.”

The Prime Minister was again questioned on why the NRF website does not have an application form.

“Whether the website is there or not is an interesting point that you’re making, but businesses that are interested in this would have looked at a media release from the Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, in November that sets out the investment mandate that was agreed to by the government,” Albanese said.

“The money is available now. The money was put in the budget and was made available when the legislation was passed.”

Following the interview, Industry Minister Ed Husic restated that the fund is “open for business”, and said it has received nearly 200 expressions of interest from Australian companies in recent months.

“But this isn’t the same as ordering a burger from your local: investment decisions will be thoroughly examined through a detailed due diligence process,” Husic posted on Threads.

These expressions of interest were done through the contact page form on the NRF’s website.

The website states that the fund is “just getting started” and is “currently in its set-up phase”.

“We are developing formal processes to evaluate financing proposals,” the website states.

“We will publish our investment policies on our website once they are finalised.”

In an email to Information Age, a spokesperson for the NRF said “businesses can get in touch with us through the contact page of our website where there is an option to indicate that they are seeking investment.

“Our investment team reviews enquiries and considers project proposals in line with our legislative framework.”‘

Mass confusion’

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley said there was now “mass confusion” around the fund.

“This tricky Prime Minister is either not across the detail, or worse still, has been caught out deliberately misleading the Australian people again,” Ley said in a statement.

“They promised the fund would ‘rebuild manufacturing’, but it hasn’t delivered a single cent to a single manufacturer.

“It is not clear if the NRF is taking applications at all, nor where prospective manufacturers can lodge an application.

“What is clear is while Labor have fiddled with press releases, Australian manufacturers have been going to the wall.”

The NRF will offer loans, credit, bonds or equity investments to Australian companies operating in seven priority areas: renewables and low-emissions technologies, medical science, transport, value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, value-add in resources, defence capability and critical technologies.

It will partner with institutional investors, private equity and venture capital, and be administered by an independent board that makes independent investment decisions, modelled on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The government has touted the fund as the “greatest investment in manufacturing capabilities in living memory”.