Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government is busy delivering in my electorate of Reid. Over the past months I have been in the community seeing positive impacts of our plan. We have been helping local female business leaders take on the world and have been upgrading major sporting facilities for families, players and fans of the Wests Tigers.

Silverwater is just west of Sydney Olympic Park. It is home to some of Australia's leading manufacturers. I recently had the pleasure of meeting a businesswoman based in Silverwater who has been backed by the government's Boosting Female Founders Initiative. Aditi Mamtani is the founder and CEO of ARETE Labs. Her innovative business assists with the personal-care products industry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals as well as pet care and home care. Her company helps clients develop and market their products. With $229,000 from the Boosting Female Founders Initiative, Aditi plans to help local start-ups and small- to medium-sized businesses enter the market. To do that her company will create a pilot facility that produces trial-sized products for her clients. This will reduce the cost of taking full-sized products to market and it's a great way to foster the growth of local Australian businesses—backed by the Morrison government.

Not far down the road is Planet Protector Packaging, a company doing great things for manufacturing, for the environment and for farmers—the trifecta. I recently joined Senator the Hon. Marise Payne, our Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, on a tour of their factory in Silverwater. I had the pleasure of meeting founder and CEO, Joanne Howarth, and her team. Joanne's company has developed a packaging product called Woolpack, made from sheep wool waste. Woolpack is a sustainable alternative to polystyrene packaging used in cold supply chains. Since 2016 Joanne's company has saved over 4,000 tonnes of waste wool from landfills and generated $7.5 million in new revenue for sheep farmers. With $400,000 from the Boosting Female Founders Initiative, Joanne plans to expand Planet Protector Packaging to South Australia and bring Woolpack to the wine industry. This move will bring her products to Australia's export market, also backed by the Morrison government.

But we're not just backing female trailblazers; we're also helping local sporting groups, such as Wests Tigers, with the Concord Oval development on way. Recently I visited Concord Oval, which is on its way, and the centre of excellence, which will be a wonderful facility for elite athletes. So there are lots of great things happening in Reid, all because of the Morrison government.

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