Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question and acknowledge her longstanding interest in regional Victoria. Last week the Prime Minister, the Minister for Industry and Science, my friend and colleague the Assistant Minister for Education, and the member for Corangamite were there for an announcement, in that great regional city of Geelong, of the government's $14 million Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre in Geelong. This centre will be integrated with a network of four similar growth centres across the country and will develop a plan to link local businesses with global companies. The plan will identify jobs and skill needs; provide a pipeline of innovations ready to commercialise; and consider areas for reforming regulation, manufacturing transformation and growth. The centre will drive the jobs of the 21st century—jobs like the 100 jobs that have been created at Carbon Revolution in Geelong, jobs that were not there two years ago.

The future of manufacturing in Australia is in the area of advanced manufacturing, using science and research to produce high-tech, high-value goods to sell to global supply chains around the world. The $225 million Industry Growth Centres Initiative provides a new sectoral approach to industry policy which builds on Australia's strengths, driving excellence and capability sectors with the most economic potential.

In conjunction with the new Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre, the Prime Minister, together with my colleague Senator Birmingham, announced that the Newcomb Secondary College will introduce an industry partnership to better prepare students to enter the workforce, with $500,000 committed towards establishing the Pathways in Technology Early College High School model at the college in 2016. On top of that, there will be a new TradeStart office in Geelong. (Time expired)