Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to answer the questions from my colleagues the members for Hindmarsh and Wakefield. Today is a continuation of something I have seen a lot in this place: because those on the other side say something does not mean it is true. This government has a proud record of standing up for our manufacturing industry. And what is not spoken about, and what is derided at every turn—and here is an unknown fact: in the last 12 months in this country, 100,000 jobs have been created in the manufacturing industry Australia-wide. The industry is in a transition and growth period. Why? Because it is at the back end of the launch of the National Innovation and Science Agenda.

I will give some specific South Australian examples. I was at Mawson Lakes last week, the UniSA campus, where there is a CRC project which the former minister, who is sitting beside me—now the Minister for Health—okayed. There is a company called SMR Automotive that is transitioning: it is staying in automotive, but high-technology, value-add—transitioning beyond—using the technology and patents driven out of UniSA at Mawson Lakes. There are contracts totalling $68 million that have been signed by SMR Automotive and UniSA to deliver new-age lightweight mirrors to Ford—and that is Ford international. That is a gateway to the automotive industry worldwide. There is interest worldwide. Why? Because the uni has come up with a way to attach an adhesive to plastic, for the first time: this is a non-glass mirror, lightweight. And in the world of automotives, weight is king—because the heavier it is, the more fuel it costs to drive, the more expensive it is, and the more carbon emissions result. The whole derivative here that they are trying to drive is lower weight. And this uni has some groundbreaking, world-first technology that is being leveraged off the back of a CRC project coming out of the National Innovation and Science Agenda—and not only keeping the jobs in SMR Automotive in South Australia but also creating more jobs into the future. Why? Because SMR, who have traditionally done automotive only, are right now as we speak looking at—again in partnership with the uni—developing a testing slide for cancer. That—again—will be a game changer, patented with the university and with worldwide application. This traditional, third-generation, family-owned automotive business will soon be providing cancer-testing kits worldwide. That is an example of transformation.

To the member for Hindmarsh: not far from his electorate is the Tonsley innovation hub, where we have TAFE, uni and the federal government coming together. I have been there to see, at the back end of our innovation program, a company that is heating molten silicon to 1,300 degrees. Why? Because for the first time, they have groundbreaking, innovative technology that will allow them to store renewable energy in such a way that it can be re-used. And the by-product—and this has signed off in a deal with a greenhouse farming, agricultural business in regional SA—is the heat that will be used to fuel those crops. We have energy companies piling in on the back of our entrepreneurs program to deliver—and I have spoken about automotive ongoing—a brand spanking new company that will innovate and grow in South Australia.

To the member for Corangamite: she spoke about the carbon hub at Deakin University. Under the CLC project there, which I launched in her electorate only a month ago, a company that had its research and development arm based in Germany—with 26 employees—has closed that down and has moved all 26 back to Geelong. The research and development arm of that automotive company will be based in Geelong—that is, 26 jobs, paying tax in Australia, which up until a month ago were located in Germany, the home of advanced manufacturing. These are real frontline grassroots examples sitting behind that number of an increase of 100,000 in our manufacturing sector in the last 12 months.

Unlike those opposite, we do not deride the manufacturing industry. We do not say things that are not true. We work out, if it needs to be transitioned, the best way to do it. That is, in the end, the policies sitting inside the National Innovation and Science Agenda, 29 of which have been delivered. There are five more to come and two are being legislated as we speak.

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