CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr HILL (Bruce—Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education) (09:37): I'm going to issue a trigger warning, a content warning, because what I'm about to say may be hard for some to hear. People from Sydney in particular may be very upset. Greater south-east Melbourne has overtaken Western Sydney as the nation's leading industrial engine room.
Greater south-east Melbourne is officially now the heart of Australian manufacturing. There is a bravery award for my friend the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, Senator Tim Ayres, who's a senator from New South Wales, for attending and speaking at the launch of a report by Deloitte Access Economics, entitled GSEM: Australia's manufacturing powerhouse.
It wasn't written by AI; it wasn't one of those Deloitte reports. It revealed that south-east Melbourne now supports more manufacturing jobs and businesses per capita than any other part of Australia—3,801 manufacturing businesses, with 75,046 Australians employed in these businesses. The former minister for industry and science, from Western Sydney, is here.
That's good of you. You're staying. There are more manufacturing jobs in south-east Melbourne than each of G21, Melbourne's west, Western Sydney, Brisbane South, Perth South, or the entire state of South Australia.
A Future Made in Australia is happening in south-east Melbourne. The contrast couldn't be clearer. The government is backing Australian manufacturing with the Future Made in Australia agenda; the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund—we shall be a renewable energy superpower; $400 million for the Industry Growth Program; and $500 million—I said 'renewables'; I know it triggers them—for the Battery Breakthrough Initiative.
We are rebuilding the industrial base of this country. That is a generational effort, resulting in good, well-paid, secure jobs. Australians, rightly at times, accuse governments of thinking too short term.
Rebuilding the industrial base of our country is the right thing to do, given our strategic circumstances, given the opportunities we have to reshore manufacturing with renewable energy and given the strategic circumstances we face. But the opposition, at every chance, vote against and oppose action on manufacturing. They opposed the NRF.
They oppose the cheapest form of new power. They chased the car industry out of Australia. They're a divided rabble who literally hate each other.
Yesterday on radio Senator Price described the opposition—her own party, which she joined five minutes ago—as 'a clown show'. People could rightly—understandably—think that's a bit unkind to clowns. But the weirdest contribution has to be from the member for Canning.
He quit his job last week. He's such a team player, that one. He's too scared to run for leader, but he quit for his car videos.
He's making car-fetish videos. That's his agenda for manufacturing—literally parroting Labor's policies, 'Let's make things again.' We agree, but he votes against action on manufacturing at every opportunity. There's a big say/do gap between the opposition— (Time expired)