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

Last Wednesday was another great day for Geelong, and a great day for Corangamite: the opening of the Carbon Revolution factory in Waurn Ponds on the site of Deakin University—a great university for our region and for our nation. Carbon Revolution has become one of our regions' great success stories: a powerhouse of jobs growth, opportunity and innovation—an advanced manufacturer at the cutting-edge of innovation in the global automotive and aerospace market, exporting its carbon fibre wheels to the world. You can see that I stand here with great pride talking about the wonderful jobs growth, innovation and advanced manufacturing happening in my electorate of Corangamite.

In July this year, Carbon Revolution became the first company in the world to supply mass-produced carbon fibre wheels on standard equipment for Ford USA. It is an extraordinary deal. The Shelby Mustang is now proudly being powered by Australian innovators underpinned by the wonderful research work into carbon fibre which began at Deakin university. It is an extraordinary story; it started with students competing to make a small car with light wheels. They experimented with carbon fibre, and look what this has become. Carbon Revolution has just signed an agreement with a North American aircraft landing gear manufacturer, there is an IPO in the wings to tap into the $40 billion global wheels market and we expect many more deals to come. It is with great pride that this factory has been funded in part by a $5 million grant from the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund—a fund to which our government has contributed $15 million. While the fund was announced by the previous Labor government, not one dollar was actually spent by Labor; all of that $15 million has been spent and delivered by our government, with great pride. There will be another funding round announced very shortly and more jobs to come.

The GRIIF is just one of the ways in which the Turnbull government is driving jobs growth across the region. There is the $14 million national Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre to drive innovation and smart jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector and $2.6 million for the Geelong region job connections program, which is funding local employment programs and great initiatives like the Geelong jobs fair as well as a local employment facilitator. So, on the ground, there is some great grassroots action. There is the $155 million Growth Fund, which includes $60 million for the Next Generation Manufacturing Investment fund, and the establishment of an Australian Bureau of Statistics Centre of Excellence to be opened earlier next year. So we are a powerhouse of jobs growth. We are working very hard, as there are some challenges, to transition our region from traditional manufacturing. Carbon Revolution is a great story about the future and about jobs growth in Corangamite.