David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I had the opportunity to host a visit to the Lyne electorate for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Darren Chester. During the visit we took the opportunity to meet with a number of local manufacturers in the electorate, all of which have and continue to do important projects for the Department of Defence.

We visited Bale Defence Industries, Birdon Marine and HF Hand, and we met with officers from Akubra hats up the road in Kempsey. We met with officers from Stebecraft in Taree and we visited many of their workplaces. I was already aware of their skill and innovation, but their capability in manufacturing complex defence equipment was the standout in the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence's visit.

Innovation and quality were the keys to their success, particularly the work that they do for the defence of Australia, whether it be for the fighting men in the military, the Navy or the SAS, the commandos or the US in the case of one that has just secured a $267 million contract to build boats for the US navy. I note particularly that all of these industries are employing local people—up to 100 between them. I do not have the exact figures, but they are all paying Commonwealth and New South Wales Treasury taxes, local government rates and taxes, and wages to their local employees. All of these local manufacturers experience what the whole of Australia is noticing—that the globalisation of trade means that they have challenges that they have not had to face before. Many of the countries and business competitors do not have the same commitments to everything that Australian businesses have. For instance, many competitor countries have little or no occupational health and safety standards similar to ours, they do not pay land tax similar to us and they do not have the institutionalised WorkCover commitments, payroll tax or compulsory superannuation. A lot of the time they do not develop the product; they just copy it. They do not have the responsibility of annual leave of four weeks, let alone leave loading.

When overseas manufacturers enter this market they have a free kick. If there are Australian-only competitors everything is neutralised, but there are different pressures that we put on ourselves—in effect, reverse tariffs on ourselves regarding international competition. (Time expired)