Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

To paraphrase an oft-quoted phrase, 'The reports of my death are exaggerated,' I'm here to say that the reports of the death of manufacturing in this country are greatly exaggerated. Whenever I go around my electorate of Forde and talk to the manufacturing businesses in my electorate, I only hear stories of success and growth. Their biggest struggle at this point in time is actually getting staff, to grow their businesses further.

This government has a tremendous story to tell on manufacturing right across this country. What I find interesting is that those opposite, when they were in government, had no qualms about applying a hammer blow to manufacturing in this country by instituting a carbon tax. All they did was introduce a carbon tax and seek to make the cost of manufacturing higher and more difficult. It's no wonder that, under their tenure, manufacturers looked to leave this country.

Over the eight years that we've been in government, manufacturers have taken advantage of any number of the incentives that this government has put in place over that time, including the more recent incentives such as the JobTrainer Fund. Nearly 2½ thousand apprentices in Forde took advantage of those measures. We've seen 18½ thousand businesses in Forde write off the full value of eligible assets that they purchased, and an additional 5,900 businesses in Forde have been able to use to extended loss carry-back measures to support cash flow and confidence.

Importantly—and those opposite never reference it in their contributions because they wouldn't want to acknowledge it—the JobKeeper payment supported nearly 7½ thousand businesses and 27½ thousand employees across the electorate of Ford, helping them through the pandemic and keeping them connected to their workplace, setting the groundwork for the recovery we're now seeing today. In addition, the cash flow boost helped around 4,800 small to medium businesses, providing some $217 million in payments to help businesses across Ford. We've also provided support through the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, we've provided support through the R&D tax incentive and, importantly, we continue to provide support through JobTrainer. There are some 13½ thousand people employed in Ford in construction and manufacturing.

I'd like to just talk about some of the manufacturing businesses in my electorate of Ford, in the time left for my speech, and the support they have received from this government. Holmwood Highgate received over a million dollars in the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants funding round to buy a new laser cutter, to continue to build the high-quality manufactured bulk-liquid transport equipment that services the commercial, aviation and—now, importantly—defence industries, as they were successful in obtaining a $30 million deal with Rheinmetall in the defence materiel space.

There are other great manufacturing businesses across my electorate of Ford. There is Beenleigh rum distillery, who during the pandemic changed their business model to also produce hand sanitiser. Recently, two of their rums won gold awards on the international stage. It's the oldest operating rum distillery in Australia. There are businesses like Poppy's Chocolate; Lithium Battery Systems; and Teys Australia, the largest employer in my electorate, who provides quality meats not only to the Australian domestic market but also overseas. BlockTexx have recently moved to the electorate, and they do fabric and textile recycling. There's GCI; Holmwood Highgate, as I mentioned; Frosty Boy; ATP Science; and Struddys, who make sporting apparel, who very clearly said to the PM that, if it wasn't for JobKeeper, they wouldn't have survived. There's Trailers Down Under, SPI Plastics, A1 Rubber, Molectra and many, many more. These are the businesses that are delivering for Australians each and every day, and they're who our government support. (Time expired)

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