Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last month I had the pleasure of attending an industry day which was the 2013 function at Reliance Manufacturing in Dandenong. It was run by the Australian Manufacturing and Farming Program and hosted by my parliamentary colleagues Senator John Madigan, Senator for Victoria, and the Hon. Bob Katter, the federal member for Kennedy. The day was an incredibly interesting snapshot of the best of Australian manufacturing and farming technology and innovation, with companies and small businesses displaying their Australian made goods. Local manufacturers at industry day 2013 included Alpine Smallgoods, Fischer Plastics Products, Lester handmade shoes—I actually bought a pair of them and they are fantastic, Aussie Wipes and Aqualex Gutter Protection. This day was held on the same day that Ford made the announcement it did. It showed that on a very grave day local manufacturers are still contributing enormously to our local economy during difficult economic times and a very overvalued Australian dollar.

South-eastern Melbourne is one of Australia's most dynamic manufacturing regions with hundreds of companies providing tens of thousands of skilled jobs and investing in critical research and development. Manufacturing in the region remains a dynamic and important component of both the state and national economies. According to the local manufacturing group SEMMA, more than 300 exporters are based in the region, demonstrating the strong international links which have been forged and which reflect the international competitiveness of local manufacturers. South-east Melbourne generates 44 per cent of Victoria's manufactured product. Industry provides 47 per cent of south-eastern Melbourne's 358,000 jobs. As I have said, more than 300 exporters are located in the region. Regional manufacturing capabilities include agriculture, automotive, building and construction, chemical, defence, electronics, food, health, IT, machinery and equipment, marine, medical, mining, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, plastics, textiles and transportation—a pretty good mix there.

I would like to lend my support to this fantastic program, the Australian Manufacturing and Farming Program, which is a non-partisan program aiming to provide us parliamentarians and the Australian community with a better understanding of life in the Australian manufacturing and farming sectors. This program was launched by Senator John Madigan and Senator Nick Xenophon and Bob Katter back in December 2011. Going there that day and seeing the resilience of our local manufacturers in very difficult economic circumstances and the quality of the product that they are offering gives me great hope. We have got to talk about manufacturing in a positive sense and we should be making it a career to aspire to because it still is the future of our country.

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