STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator DOWLING (Tasmania) (13:50): Tasmania is less than one per cent of Australia's landmass and home to barely two per cent of its people, but our size has never set the limit on what we can build. A few weeks ago, the world's largest battery-electric ship began its journey from Tasmania to South America, and this extraordinary vessel wasn't built in Rotterdam, Singapore or Shanghai.

It was built in Hobart. It was built by Incat on the banks of the River Derwent. Hull 096 is 130 metres long and carries 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles.

But here is the extraordinary part: its battery system stores more than 40 megawatt-hours of energy, four times larger than any previous maritime battery installation. It's the largest battery-electric ship ever built, and it's no one-off. Three more battery-electric ferries are already under construction at Incat, bound for Denmark.

They will be the largest electric ferries operating in Europe. Tasmania is not following the future of maritime manufacturing; we are building it. I visited Hull 096 with Incat founder Robert Clifford shortly before it departed, and what struck me was what sat behind its scale: Tasmanian design, Tasmanian engineering, Tasmanian trades, Tasmanian know-how.

And Incat is no outlier. Across our state, world-class advanced manufacturers are building specialist vessels, marine systems, mining equipment and technology for customers around the world. There is an economic lesson here.

The clean-energy transition is not just about generating power; it's an opportunity to build industries, create skilled jobs and export Tasmanian expertise. Hull 096 may have left Hobart, but it leaves behind proof of something bigger: Tasmania does not have to be big to build things that change the world.