Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I applaud— (Quorum formed)I get to my feet very positively supporting the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024. It really is a wonderful statement providing a wonderful process by which this government will support Australian manufacturing, which I have to say is thriving in my electorate of Macarthur—which is, by population, the biggest electorate in the country. The many people who live in Macarthur need high-paying, well-qualified jobs, which are what this bill will promote.

We are very excitedly looking forward to the opening of Western Sydney Airport, which is just to the north of my electorate. It's actually in the electorate of Werriwa, which borders Macarthur. The Western Sydney Airport will be the most modern and most high-tech airport in Australia, and one of the best in the world. My eldest son is the lead engineer on the rail project that is delivering public transport to the airport, and I'm very excited about it, as are the many people in my electorate, who will have very high-tech, well-paying and very satisfying jobs in the businesses that are already springing up around it. It is a signature policy of the Albanese Labor government and I support it 100 per cent.

All I've heard from the other side is negativity, some very stilted views of Australian history, and no policies. They had a decade of watching our manufacturing industry decay. They'd previously allowed one of our biggest manufacturing industries, the motor vehicle industry, to leave Australia. They shut it down, and they had no view of the future. Unfortunately, 20 years later there is no difference. All we get from the opposition is negativity, no policy and no view of the future.

That's exactly right. They just want to dig things out of the ground, grow things on the land and export it. They don't understand the importance of manufacturing and sovereign capability in our country.

I'm the proud member for Macarthur and I've had the privilege to visit and see some of the incredible work of the over 650 manufacturing companies in my electorate. They range from construction manufacturing, defence industry and high-tech printing. In my electorate, we have the wonderful DECO group at Minto, which produces the non-flammable coatings that you see on buildings, which are really taking over from imported products. They can do wonderful powder coating, they do wood panelling and they do anything you want coated onto metal or other products for industries including the medical manufacturing industry, the construction industry, all different industries. DECO is led by the amazing Ross Doonan, who is a manufacturing engineer producing his own robotic equipment in Macarthur for his business, which is rapidly expanding. Interestingly, in an industry that is traditionally a high energy user, over 60 per cent of DECO's power is now renewable energy thanks to the renewable energy project Ross has done on his own factories. It is amazing to see and it gives me huge hope for the future.

There are a whole range of other businesses, like the Platt company, producing for the defence industry, and Noumi, the company that now produces different forms of milk—almond milk, soya milk, all those things—in a high-tech factory in Ingleburn which I've visited several times. I am impressed with the manufacturers of Macarthur. I really see the quality of the products being produced in Macarthur and I'm continuously impressed.

I'm not the only member of this House of course who can say they are proud that they know that there's Australian manufacturing in their electorate, and we are seeing this renaissance around the country supported by the government with policies like the Future Made in Australia Bill, as well as our commitment to renewable energy. As well as being chair of the Health, Aged Care and Sport Committee, I'm also on the Agriculture Committee and I've had the benefit of visiting many innovative industries in agriculture around the country that are using new technologies to produce food and other agricultural crops without the use of pesticides or the high use of fertilisers. That is all for export and all making the lives of Australians better.

Obviously my first and main interest is in the health industry, and I have seen some absolutely amazing things. One thing in particular, which I've seen several times, even though their present manufacturing hub is not in my electorate, is Cochlear. They have their manufacturing plant in Australia in the electorate of Bennelong, which is Jerome Laxale's electorate. When you visit their factory, you cannot help but be impressed by the quality of the workers and the quality of the things that they produce there with cochlear implants. Professor Graeme Clark, who developed the cochlear implant, grew up in my electorate of Macarthur. It is incredible to think that his vision and his foresight have led to a company like Cochlear. To visit their plant is amazing. They have other manufacturing plants around the world, but their highest quality and most modern technology is produced in the Australian plant in the electorate of Bennelong and is exported all over the world. It is just so impressive to see. They have a huge research group that is looking at further advances in things like bionic eyes and other high-tech medical developments. As an Australian I'm very proud of what they can do.

Another fantastic Australian medical company is ResMed. ResMed was developed through the efforts of Professor Colin Sullivan at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. I knew him as a young resident and a medical student. Because of his developments in sleep and sleep technology, we now have another fantastic Australian company. ResMed produces in Sydney, but some of its products are also developed and produced in my electorate of Macarthur, particularly through the DECO Group. They are another fantastic Australian medical manufacturing company that this government is supporting. We'll continue to support innovative companies like this through the Future Made in Australia program. It's not about picking winners; it's about giving companies the ability to develop their products in Australia for Australian use and for export.

We learnt in the pandemic that, if we let our manufacturing industry continue to run down, we run the risk of not having products that we use every day in health and agriculture et cetera. So it is important that we have that sovereign manufacturing capability. Because we have lost the ability to manufacture many things in Australia, we've lost the ability to produce a lot of the pharmaceuticals which we are using every day. In my time as a medical student, Australia produced its own antibiotics. We no longer produce the really high-level antibiotics that we use in our hospitals; we rely on imports. We need to reverse that. There are already shortages that have developed over the last five years, and it is very important that we develop sovereign pharmaceutical manufacturing, and Future Made in Australia will help support that. It will give companies the confidence to invest.

That includes companies like Moderna, which is developing an RNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Melbourne. It is important that the government supports these things, not only for our sovereign manufacturing and the fact that we need these things in Australia but for the fact that we can now export overseas. Many international companies like Moderna are learning that, with the philosophy of this government and the policies this government is putting in place, they can invest in Australia confidently, knowing they have a government that will support their efforts not just to produce in Australia but to produce things for export all around the world. There are many examples of innovative companies which have changed the lives of many Australians and many people overseas. Our near neighbours are huge, with high populations, and they are going to want the high-tech products that our manufacturers can produce.

I am very optimistic about our future. I know that my children and my grandchildren will have positive futures because of government policies that encourage manufacturing in and exports from Australia. I have no hesitancy in standing here and speaking about the Future Made in Australia Bill, because that gives me confidence, not just for myself but for my children, my grandchildren and future generations. We are a country that is resilient. We have many inventors. Unfortunately, over decades, we've lost the ability to support them by manufacturing in Australia. We now have an opportunity to compete on a global scale in the global economy, particularly in things like our transition to net zero.

This bill steps out how we will put the discipline and the rigour established in the Future Made in Australia Bill into practice by expanding the roles of Export Finance Australia and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. I'm very excited about it. I'm very positive about this bill. We have a government that at last sponsors manufacturing and is doing its best to prepare Australia and future generations for a prosperous future.

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