ADJOURNMENT

Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (16:45): Recently, we celebrated Australian Made Week in Macarthur, and to mark that occasion I visited the fantastic team at Sebel, a manufacturing business which produces chairs, stools, tables, desks and storage units in Minto in my electorate of Macarthur. Established in 1951, and having won numerous awards since, Sebel now employs nearly 50 local workers who produce high-quality, built-to-last products that serve our nation.

They are a trusted Australian brand bolstering our economy and employing many locals. I have a personal relationship with Sebel. Although it's no longer owned by the Sebel family, Sebel was started by Harry and Queenie Sebel, who were friends of my grandparents, in 1951.

Harry Sebel came from England with very little money and built up the Sebel business to be a really fantastic business exporting all around the world. It's great to see the Sebel tradition of high-quality products being maintained now in my electorate of Macarthur. Harry and Queenie are long gone, but their legacy continues with a business that is employing lots of people and providing innovative products and 21st century manufacturing, including recycling.

When I visited the factory, we saw part of the recycling plant there. They had 40-year-old plastic moulded chairs which were being recycled and made into new chairs which hopefully, I think, will last another 40 or 50 years. It's an incredible business, a small business started by a family wanting to take a risk and build up a life in Australia.

It's a really innovative place. You'll find Sebel products in a whole range of environments around the country. Virtually every public school has Sebel chairs.

I think there are probably some Sebel chairs in this parliament. It has really innovative products that are now going all around the world. When I posted this visit on my socials, a fair few comments were received from constituents saying they were surprised to learn that we still made things in Australia.

I can reassure you that in Macarthur manufacturing is strong, and we have some great, great companies there. It was great to celebrate Australian Made Week, and we raised awareness amongst the companies themselves that they have partners and that there are businesses all around the country that are still manufacturing high-quality products. Across the road from Sebel, of course, is DECO Australia, which I have celebrated in this place before.

It was founded by my friend Ross Doonan in 2004 and has gone on to national and international acclaim, producing products with coating. You often see them on railway stations—the signs and chairs that have wood coatings on aluminium products. I myself am doing a home renovation that will be using DECO products.

These products are high quality and made in Australia. They are being exported all around the world, and they're produced in their manufacturing facility in my electorate of Macarthur, and I'm very proud of that. They produce the signages you see at train stations, as I've mentioned, and the innovative coating products you see on houses by the sea.

At Wollongong, Katoomba, Kiama and everywhere between, you'll see signs and coating products made by DECO in Macarthur. I really want to encourage all of us to celebrate our Australian-made products. We really need to keep a look out for Australian-made products and celebrate that they're made in this country, and we need to support these businesses by buying their products.

The Albanese Labor government is proud to continue supporting Australian products through our almost $23 billion investment over the next decade to build the A Future Made in Australia campaign to support Australian manufacturing and jobs. We have some other great companies in Macarthur: the a2 Milk Company and the Leppington Pastoral Company, producing dairy products.

We do some great things in Australia, and we do some great things in my electorate of Macarthur. The COVID crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exposed how vulnerable we are without a sound, stable manufacturing base, and our government is working hard to build up Australia's manufacturing and infrastructure capability. We do this all around the country, but I'm proud of what's happening in Macarthur and I'm proud that we continue our manufacturing, with small businesses that support local jobs and local people.

And it's really a great place to live.