Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

I'm incredibly proud that it was manufacturing jobs that gave me my opportunities in life. Both my grandfathers, my father and my two brothers were at General Motors Holden in South Australia. My mother was at Levi Strauss in the manufacturing hub of Elizabeth, built by Sir Thomas Playford, the great Liberal and Country League Premier.

I understand how important this is to Australia's economy and sovereignty, and I reject the rhetoric coming from those opposite on this topic today. The Prime Minister and the minister for industry know how important manufacturing is to our country and to our sovereignty. The Morrison government is focused on the present and a future filled with manufacturing. That's why we have the $1.5 billion modern manufacturing fund that was developed and announced on the Gold Coast at Neumann Steel in Currumbin by the Prime Minister and my Gold Coast colleague the former minister for industry, the member for MacPherson and now the Minister for Home Affairs.

Our government has now committed over $925 million of funding under our Modern Manufacturing Strategy for over 185 transformational projects leveraging over $2.5 billion dollars of co-investment. The key pillars of the strategy are getting the economic conditions right for business. This includes delivering affordable and reliable energy; making science and technology work for industry and for jobs; aligning our research and innovation with our areas of focus, like new energy technologies; focusing on areas of advantage with our six National Manufacturing Priorities, including medical products, defence, food and beverage manufacturing, critical minerals, clean energy and space; building national resilience for a strong economy; and making supply chains more resilient and supporting diversification.

The modern manufacturing fund rollout to assist Australian manufacturers to update their processes, their equipment, their capability and their output continues today across the country and, can I say, across my hometown of the Gold Coast. Manufacturing contributes an extra $13.5 billion to GDP compared to when we came to office in 2013, and an extra $5.7 billion since the last election. More than one million Australians now work in manufacturing. That is 200,000 more than at the 2019 election—20 per cent more than at the last election.

Those opposite destroyed one in eight jobs under their watch. Australians cannot trust those opposite in a Labor-Greens government with their livelihoods. There is a clear choice at the next election. If Australians choose a Labor-Greens government at the next election they will be a threat to Australian jobs. They will be a threat to our economy. They will be a threats to the cost of living. They will be a threat to rising interest rates and they will be a threat to our country's future. A Labor-Greens government will impose a carbon tax, and Australians remember well what happened last time when one in eight manufacturing jobs were destroyed by the Labor government. On the Gold Coast, the latest figures I have from Regional Development Australia Gold Coast outline that manufacturing now contributes $8.3 billion to the Gold Coast economy. It's grown local jobs from 14,000 to 22,800. That's significant. That is actually currently larger than any other industry.

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