Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021. Deputy Speaker Zimmerman, I'm sure you'll appreciate this, but, being in the chair, as we are, often, I get the opportunity—and so do you—to hear many contributions from honourable members, and so it has been in the last couple of days. I have had the opportunity to hear government members speak to the appropriation bills, and—quite rightly, I guess; they are government members—they talk about this government's delivery to their electorates; they talk about the government listening and about lots and lots of visiting from ministers; they talk about shovel-ready projects, gearing to go. And I sit there wondering: 'That's all well and good, but what about my constituents, who are waiting for this government to deliver on urgently-needed projects and investments in our region and in my seat of Calwell?'

I want to begin—as always, when I am thinking about my electorate—by speaking about the decline of manufacturing in Calwell. When examining the advances or failings of the budget and the economy, you have to measure the rhetoric against the realities on the ground. The single most important thing is to look at whether the policies of the government are skewed away from benefiting the people in my electorate who I represent in this place, because, where there are budget or policy gaps, it is almost always the case under a coalition government that these failings impact the people in my electorate first and, quite often, the hardest.

These failings are visible and they're real. The former site of the Ford factory in Broadmeadows stands testimony to the fact that we're fast becoming a nation that no longer makes things. The reason is that this government has been, on this issue, missing in action and its record is filled with delays.

What more evidence do we need of the fact that local manufacturing is critical to our national and economic security than what was revealed to us during this very difficult year of the COVID pandemic? This global pandemic highlighted to us the precarious nature of the government's policies. The government has long outsourced our manufacturing capabilities to a world that all too readily closed its doors on the globalised nature of trade and access to vital goods as soon as the crisis hit, leaving us vulnerable and dependent. We've seen that in the case of the purchases of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Europe. But this isn't just about access to imports. It has long been about so much more, and, especially, the flow-on effects for the people in my electorate. It's about the contribution of manufacturing to Australia's GDP, its contribution to employment and the creation of new jobs around the total supply chain and the contribution of manufacturing to business expenditure on research and development.

In stark contrast to the government's attitude, we on this side of the House have a plan, and I'm very proud of this plan. It's a plan to secure jobs through a future made in Australia—a plan that speaks to the needs of the many in my electorate who find obstacle after obstacle thrown in their way, especially the younger people who are disadvantaged when trying to seek out, in this instance, their first-year apprenticeships or traineeships.

The residents of Calwell are not a peripheral community of Melbourne. We are, by any measure, Melbourne's gateway, with a strong logistics infrastructure that includes Melbourne Airport, Melbourne market and Hume Freeway, along with the portfolio of road, rail and infrastructure. We have one of the strongest food and beverage manufacturing sectors in Australia, including famous household names and brands, such as the former Schweppes site, which is now the Asahi factory. But it isn't just the traditional manufacturing base that is a part of our local economy. In my electorate, since the decline of heavy manufacturing such as Ford—which was a victim of this government's short-sightedness—businesses, small to medium sized in particular, have had to diversify to create new opportunities and jobs. With the commitment and investment made by the previous Labor government, we were able to achieve this. Melbourne's north continues to undergo its transition from a traditional manufacturing and heavy industry base to one centred on high-quality advanced manufacturing, on knowledge based industries and on services.

The demographic figures for the region are staggering. One in three Victorians and one in 12 Australians live in Melbourne's north and west. Together, the north and west of Melbourne have a population of approximately two million, with 980,000 persons being added by 2036, representing a 50 per cent growth in population over that time. This means the local population will be 50 per cent larger than the entire population of South Australia, and the proof of this is in the fact that, in the last two terms, two new federal seats have been created in Melbourne's north-west. That is why we need jobs—to match the increase in population and to meet the needs of the community. Not for a moment has my community stood still in the face of this growing reality, and I want to pay tribute to my local council, the Hume City Council, and serving mayor Councillor Joseph Haweil, because they are a key partner in the north and west Melbourne city deal.

In the closing days of the 45th Parliament—in fact, just before the 2019 federal election was called—NORTH Link, which is a network of businesses in my electorate, received a letter from then Minister Tudge informing them that our region was being offered a city deal. There was very little detail at the time from the minister, but a north and west Melbourne city deal proposal was developed and launched by the north-west alliance in August 2020. It produced a wish list of 66 major projects that run across the two regions.

For my local council, the Hume City Council, its list of priorities—envisaged to add to the economic growth and the creation of jobs in the electorate and in the region—includes the commercial development of Hume Central; the redevelopment of the Broadmeadows Railway Station; an advanced manufacturing centre for assistive technology; the outer metropolitan ring transport corridor, the E6; the Kangan Institute TAFE Broadmeadows campus redevelopment; improved interchanges between the Hume Freeway and major arterial roads; the redevelopment of the Maygar barracks; the Bulla Bypass; the Somerton Road duplication; the Mickleham Road duplication; the duplication of Sunbury Road between Melbourne Airport and Bulla; and the Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal.

These projects are waiting for the federal government to come to the table and progress the formal memorandum-of-understanding arrangements. Our local city councils—in particular, my local city council of Hume—are ready to go. Our state government is ready to go. So my question to the government in this chamber is when will you be ready to go? When will the government be ready to come to the party, come to the table and engage in the formal memorandum of understanding?

I'm very concerned, as we all are in my electorate, about the slow progress from the government in relation to these proposals, and there's still a great deal of uncertainty about future prospects. I have had these discussions with my local city council, and they are very worried about future prospects and viability. Will these projects ever eventuate?

So let me just say to the government: without a city deal, our region and my local community face a real crisis with the compounding set of problems brought about by the decline of industry and the effects of COVID on the economy, particularly the resulting decline in the community's employment numbers and falling gross regional product figures.

These are sound, concrete project proposals that would serve as transformative and enabling projects critical to our economy. We need real movement and action from this government, and we need it fast. This not only delivers to a region that has had the least infrastructure funding of all greater Melbourne regions, on a population growth basis—which is a shame in itself—but delivers for all Victoria. Funding these projects delivers for all Victoria and all Australia. These projects would not only address the significant and longstanding congestion and lack of growth but enable the shift to an innovation and knowledge economy that is best placed for advanced manufacturing, that strengthens an enviable connectivity and supply chain, and that harnesses active and vibrant job corridors. I call on the government to move with urgency on this. It must invest in our regions' infrastructure and show it is committed not only to my electorate but to the communities that live in the north-western areas of Melbourne.

As I've said, these proposals—if the government funds and delivers on them—will create the jobs of the future by bolstering transport connectivity and health and wellbeing, and they will add to a significant increase in the livability standards of our residents. However, what my community has seen in relation to this government is that it tends to leave things for another day when it comes to non-government-held electorates. The only things it doesn't leave for another day are cuts. For this government, the cuts never wait; they just keep coming. The premature end to JobKeeper is a particularly painful example of this for the people in my electorate. At a time when the rollout of the vaccine is progressing more slowly than expected, by the government's own standards and the timetable it has set itself, the government isn't even trying to formulate an economic response that would see JobKeeper applied in a so-called 'tailored and targeted' way. The government's approach is simply to ditch JobKeeper altogether.

In Victoria we went through a very difficult period. It was a long and hard lockdown. Not only were many people in my electorate the most affected; they will be the hardest hit when JobKeeper comes to an end this week. In my electorate of Calwell, 13,274 workers and 4,313 businesses will be impacted by cuts to JobKeeper, according to Treasury figures. I expect that when this happens at the end of this week, and once the cuts come into effect in the weeks that follow, we will see many businesses go under and people unable to make ends meet. With 60 Australians on JobSeeker for every entry-level job, Mr Deputy Speaker, how many do you think we will end up with if JobKeeper is removed early, as we're told will happen at the end of this week? It's no good getting someone through the pandemic only to abandon them as we edge closer to the pathway out of this crisis. There's a lot of angst and uncertainty in my community and the industries and businesses still struggling to stay afloat.

In the time I have left, I'd like to talk about CSL in Broadmeadows. CSL has an iconic presence in Broadmeadows. Australia's way out of the pandemic and towards reopening again is through the AstraZeneca vaccine program, and our local community is very proud that the AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured at CSL in Broadmeadows. I had the opportunity to visit CSL in Broadmeadows last year, in November, with the then shadow minister for health, the member for McMahon. I've been through CSL on many occasions, but this was a very special visit. We were taken through and shown where the AstraZeneca vaccine would be manufactured. I spoke to CSL about their process. I even asked them whether building such an enormous manufacturing capacity would be impacted by any work shortages, and they were very confident that they would be able to pool their resources with CSIRO and other areas across their business to ensure that there would be no possibility of work shortages impacting on their capacity to deliver the 50 million-odd vaccines. Simultaneously, CSL will also be producing the flu vaccine.

We have in this company a wonderful example of Australian medical and scientific excellence, and we're proud that it's in our electorate. I am aware that some of our clinics are already online and advertising for people to log on to be vaccinated. I just want to say to all my constituents: we've done it tough—the pandemic has been a problem for us especially—but it is absolutely critical that everybody takes the opportunity to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. We need to ensure that as much of our population as possible—and certainly my electorate—is vaccinated. It's a vaccine that we should be proud of. It will be an Australian-manufactured vaccine. I encourage everyone in the federal seat of Calwell to log on, make a booking and, when their time comes, have the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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