Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to begin by dissuading the House of a myth, or at least establishing a fact. That is, as the member for Barker, I represent a division in this place that enjoys the title of employing in the electorate more full-time equivalent employees by head of population in manufacturing than in any other division in this place. It's an important title and it's one we don't speak about enough, or at least others don't. I certainly do take the opportunity to point out that, in terms of the league table on that particular matrix, Barker sits atop the dais.

Why is it important? It's important because of many of the facts that we heard from members on both sides of this place in relation to this debate. It's important, because how often do you hear in this place in the policy debate or otherwise the need for us to see we convert more of our raw product to value added product? How often do we hear debates about needing to push the value chain further down the road? As someone who represents, as I said, more employees engaged in manufacturing per head of population than any other person in this place, I also represent a whole swathe of farmers, foresters and fishermen who provide the raw product for those processing facilities and who benefit, quite frankly, because of those downstream processes. And it's probably not too far off to draw the conclusion that the fact that those manufacturing facilities exist in my electorate is because of the exceptional raw products that are grown, harvested, and in some cases fished but otherwise tended in my electorate.

I recall an interview when I was first given the privilege of being in this role, when there was a theme around this building that manufacturing in Australia was dead. Deputy Speaker Freelander, you'll recall the decision from General Motors Holden to pull out of Australia, and that there was a sense that Australians couldn't manufacture anything anymore. This assertion was put to me by a local journalist on air, during a live broadcast, and I simply said: 'That's rubbish. Here in the electorate'—because I was being interviewed in the electorate—'manufacturing is thriving.' 'How could that be?' said the reporter. Well, I ran the reporter through the facts. Of course, this was in the lead-up to establishing world-leading free trade agreements with a number of significant export destinations, and we've only gone from strength to strength.

Our government has also identified the need, if you like, to lean into modern manufacturing. In October 2020, the Prime Minister announced the Modern Manufacturing Strategy, to build national resilience by securing sovereign capabilities in areas of national interest. Whether it's Philly cheese, all of which is produced in Mount Gambier in my electorate; or the meat that comes from Teys abattoir at Naracoorte; or the wines—I know the member for Cowper was making contributions about wines from other states outside of South Australia; I acknowledge his enthusiasm but, quite frankly, he's fighting an uphill battle!—throughout the Barossa and Coonawarra. There are other modern manufacturing plants, like Costa Adelaide Mushrooms in Murray Bridge, a facility which looks very much like it has come off the set of a sci-fi movie. Modern manufacturing is not, as many in this place would suggest, something that doesn't take place in regional Australia.

I want to take a moment to dwell on the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund. It's obviously a fund of great importance. It's part of our government's strategy to lean into modern manufacturing and take advantage of the very real opportunities that exist, not exclusively but assisted, of course, by the free-trade agenda that we've been able to negotiate so successfully across the globe in our time in government since 2013. That modern manufacturing fund has seen a number of projects supported in Barker. Those projects include both the very big and the very small, but I want to talk today about two projects at opposite ends of that spectrum: respectfully, a smaller project supporting a more modest but important manufacturing exercise and a potentially gargantuan one. These projects highlight the breadth of manufacturing that takes place in my electorate, and also the importance of manufacturing across that spectrum, from the very small to the very large.

I've never had one, but espresso martinis, apparently, are pretty trendy! Now, in order to have one, or at least produce one, you need a shot of coffee. In a busy bar environment, spending time firing up the coffee machine, producing your shot of coffee, cooling it down and then producing the espresso martini is a less than efficient way of going about it. So Arrosto Coffee, in my electorate of Barker, got thinking. What they did was establish a rather small bespoke but, I would suggest, relatively inefficient manufacturing process which allowed cold-drip coffee to be bottled and then sold so that, in making that espresso martini, the bar could quickly access a shot of coffee, execute the espresso martini and get to the next customer. In a hospitality environment like that one of the most significant inputs is labour costs, so this was a significant saving.

Along comes the modern manufacturing fund. A $99,550 grant went to Arrosto Coffee to go towards what was effectively a $200,000 project. The grant allowed the business to build a new manufacturing facility, complete with upgrades to bottling, labelling, sterilising technologies and a renewable energy system. I took the opportunity recently, when I was in Renmark, to pop in, and in a happy coincidence they were commissioning a bottling line while I was there. I saw what a significant transformation a modest but meaningful contribution can make. For the benefit of the minister at the table, the Minister for Resources and Water, this is a business that exists in the Murray-Darling Basin, and though it wasn't receiving funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Regional Economic Diversification Program, it is a great example of a business diversifying away from reliance on irrigated horticulture.

That is what the modern manufacturing fund can do at the more modest end of the industry spectrum. I now take the House to the other end of the spectrum. Serendipitously, today I signed a letter of support in relation to the next round of the Australian government's Modern Manufacturing Initiative. It was to support an application proposed by Borg Manufacturing. As I am co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Forestry Industries, this is a project that has had my interest for some time. Borg is seeking funding to support the development of a fully integrated, world-class recycled-wood particle board manufacturing facility, incorporating highly efficient heat-recovery systems. In short, Borg is seeking to take wood waste from construction sites and reuse it by making it into particle board, which will find its way back onto construction sites and into the construction of dwellings and other things. It's significant because, though the House might not appreciate it, one of the largest streams of waste going to landfill today by volume is building waste. If we can remove wood fibre from that stream and re-energise that wood fibre together with new fibres into brand new particle board, it will be a significant win.

It's a significant win for industry because we're talking about a capital project of some $150 million. You can only imagine how many jobs in construction that will create at Borg's facility in Mount Gambier. It's also a win for the national interest. When I began my contribution, I spoke about the fact that our government is leaning in to the Modern Manufacturing Strategy around securing sovereign capability. It might come as a surprise to the House, but we operate a trade deficit in this country when it relates to timber and wood products. Australia is a net importer of timber. I can't fathom it, but it's real. We import timber to a value of around $6 billion, while we export timber and timber products to the value of about $4 billion. A significant element of that is particleboard.

This project alone, using the latest generation technology, will produce over 40 per cent of the nation's particleboard demand. It will be a domestic processing facility for pulp log, which today effectively has no domestic processing home in Australia. Indeed, we're even struggling to export that product internationally. The very real risk is that, if we don't establish processing facilities like this one proposed by Borg in the south-east of South Australia, then much of the pulp log in this country will simply go to waste; it will be thinned to waste. This is valuable fibre that takes many years to grow. It will be thinned to produce more structural timber as part of the plantation growing sector.

We as the government are leaning in on modern manufacturing. Too often in this place, when people hear those words or that phrase in the context of innovation and other issues that are critically important, they fail to appreciate that manufacturing exists on a spectrum. In my electorate, in my very real examples, I've shown you the importance of both very small projects and the gargantuan $100 to $200 million projects. They're important not for any other reason than that they drive employment outcomes. It's employment outcomes that drive strong families, and strong families that make strong communities. All of that can be derived directly from a commitment by our government to lean into modern manufacturing to secure our sovereign capability in areas of national interest.

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