Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak about a very important event that happened in my electorate last week. It was a pleasure to join Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, as well as the state Minister for Industry and Trade, Tom Koutsantonis, in my electorate at SMR Automotive in Lonsdale. The reason everyone got together was to launch the third round of successful companies to receive money through the SA Innovation and Investment Fund, set up by both the state and the federal government in response to the collapse and the closure of Mitsubishi in 2008.

The closure of Mitsubishi, the manufacturing plant near my electorate, was a significant blow to jobs and manufacturing in the local area. However, as result of this fund, through the proactive investment by the federal and state governments, we have seen a blossoming of manufacturing businesses in my local area. The money from the SA Innovation and Investment Fund has helped to allow these innovative manufacturing businesses to expand. Three manufacturing businesses in my local community are set in this round to benefit from close to $2½ million. The important funds will provide local industry with a much-needed boost to commit an expansion with a particular focus in this round of projects on the renewable energy sector's manufacturing and engineering to create jobs in the local area. Lonsdale-based manufacturing companies Redarc Electronics, Robin Johnson Engineering and SMR Automotive Australia will be able to use their funding to expand and diversify, creating new jobs for locals in southern Adelaide. Talking to these businesses, you hear about some of the really innovative local manufacturing cutting-edge technology that they are not only taking up but developing, putting southern Adelaide at the forefront of advanced manufacturing. This is the future for manufacturing in Australia. We often hear that manufacturing is not expanding but I do believe that manufacturing has a bright future in this country and that it is companies such as these that will take manufacturing to the next level with innovative cutting-edge technology.

I will talk about SMR Automotive, one of the recipients announced last Thursday. This company develops, produces and distributes exterior mirrors, blind spot detection systems and a wide range of automotive components. The company has 22 per cent of the global market share in production of exterior mirrors for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and heavy trucks. It is one of the leading experts for camera based sensing systems in the automotive industry. One of the particular products it has developed—I do not want to give any intellectual property away but, as they said at the launch, it is very difficult just from the description to be able to actually replicate this. They have been able to manufacture very high quality plastic exterior mirrors for cars, and they are the first to do it in the world at this quality and standard. This reduces the weight of the car. Every component in a car adds to the burden that the user has on fuel, so there is a real focus on moving away from heavy vehicles to lighter ones. This innovative idea will reduce the total weight of the car. SMR did not develop this on their own; they have excellent strategic partnerships with a number of research institutions such as the University of Wollongong, the University of South Australia and Flinders University, all contributing in a really exciting initiative to take that idea and turn it into a commercial proposition that will supply the world. That is a real success story.

In addition we had Redarc Electronics with over 30 years experience in research, design and development, and manufacture of a range of electronic voltage converters and associated products. I have been off to visit them and that has been very interesting. They are expanding, putting more and more employees on. I think they said they had around 50 or 60 employees now, a really exciting proposition.

Robin Johnson Engineering will expand the Lonsdale Park facility to establish a high-volume, innovative turnkey manufacturing plant to produce transportable switch rooms, smart electricals and advanced technology. (Time expired)