Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Parliamentary Friends of Aussie Fashion police are out in force today. They are checking labels to make sure that we have been buying local goods and supporting local designers. I am pleased that I am 'on song' today—sporting an outfit not only designed in my electorate but manufactured there as well. It is more proof that Australian manufacturing is not dead. Tokay is a vertically integrated fashion house run by a mother and daughter team, Jennifer Stefanelli and Jessica McLagan. Extraordinarily, Jessica is actually a mechanical engineer who decided that she was going to join forces with her mother to take the business further. Tokay has been designing and manufacturing its clothing in Western Australia for 16 years and specialises in ladies' occasion wear. They really do produce some stunning, distinctive, beautifully-cut garments which they sell in their three retail locations, including on the iconic and fabled Beaufort Street strip in my electorate. They employ 12 people across their business. I am also pleased to say that my shoes, which you cannot see, are also designed and manufactured in Perth, by the longstanding WA manufacturing icon Benelli, which produces handmade and individually tailored shoes at off-the-shelf prices. These businesses are denying the convention that we cannot manufacture clothing and footwear— (Time expired)