Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to provide the House with an update on the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund, known as the GRIIF. Across Corangamite and the broader Geelong region, there is no issue more important than jobs. With our region under some pressure and unemployment too high, our government recognises how important it is to support the private sector in delivering the jobs of the future. These are in the growth sectors of the economy, including in advanced manufacturing, food processing and agriculture. Last week the federal government, in partnership with the Victorian government, Ford and Alcoa, announced 580 new jobs across five businesses in our region in just eight days. I was delighted to be joined by the Minister for Industry, Ian Macfarlane, to make these announcements.

Let me talk about some of the great companies which are delivering these jobs. Farmfoods, a great local producer of value-added meat products, will create 27 new jobs in Geelong by 2016. The company won a $525,000 grant that will be used to install new meat-processing and packaging equipment and will also assist the company to open up more export opportunities in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Organic Dairy Farmers Australia, another terrific company, which started off in south-west Victoria has been awarded a $600,000 grant. Organic Dairy Farmers will establish a new cream and cheese processing and packaging line in North Geelong. This will allow the company to increase its capability to expand both its domestic and export markets and to create new jobs.

Quick-Step is another innovative company, with a grant of $1.76 million. It will be establishing a pilot production facility at Deakin University's Carbon Nexus in Waurn Ponds. This facility will enable the development of low-volume production runs of composite face components for the global automotive market. In a media release, Quick-Step Executive Chairman, Tony Quick, said:

This grant will make an important contribution to enable us to build a strong automotive culture and propel Quick-Step further into the global automotive market.

So what we are seeing, along with the likes of Carbon Revolution, which is a company producing carbon fibre state-of-the-art wheels for the global market, are amazing companies working in the automotive global manufacturing market. Let's not forget that, while Ford is closing its manufacturing of cars in Australia, the 490 jobs at Ford at the proving ground and at its product development plant are continuing. This is a far cry from the doom and gloom we heard from the member for Corio, who wrongly claimed in a speech on 1 October in this House that these jobs were at risk. Ford has confirmed, and I state for the record, that these jobs are not at risk. In fact, these are the very jobs which are helping us to become a smart manufacturing city. I proudly talk about those jobs and I proudly talk about our potential as a smart manufacturing hub, perhaps the premier smart manufacturing hub in Australia.

I am also delighted that a wonderful company based in Geelong, Cotton On, has received a very substantial $3.4 million grant to support an $8.7 million expansion. This is an incredible company that started in 1991 with one small store in East Geelong. It now has 1,300 stores in 17 countries across the globe. The headquarters in Geelong is incredible. It is our own Silicon Valley. It really is incredible what is happening at Cotton On. It is a great credit to the management and to the staff there with respect to what is going on there and how quickly they are expanding, which will lead to another 300 jobs.

There is also Australian Lamb Colac Pty Ltd, a great company in Colac. I was at the Colac business awards on Saturday night. They took out the top prize, so congratulations to Australian Lamb. Again they have won a GRIIF grant, delivering up to 200 jobs and another 100 trade jobs. In total, under the GRIIF program, we have seen some 834 jobs. We are demonstrating incredibly strong jobs growth in the Geelong region through the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund and we are very proud to support that fund. Thank you.