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

Tomorrow with great pleasure I will be welcoming the Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation, the member for Hume, to Geelong. We are going to visit a wonderful company which really typifies the way in which Geelong's economy is growing and becoming more diversified. It is the Cotton On Group, which is an extraordinary global empire. It is headquartered in Geelong. It now has some 1,400 stores around the world, employing some 22,000 people. There are nearly 1,600 people working at Cotton On Group's headquarters in North Geelong and a further 600 or so people working at its distribution centre in Lara.

We are incredibly proud of the way in which Geelong is supporting the growth of these sorts of industries. Geelong, to a large degree, was built on the sheep's back, as they say, and after a significant time of downturn in the textile industry we are now seeing a vibrant re-emergence of the textiles industry in Geelong, albeit in a very new and exciting way. This is all part of the very strong advocacy that we are putting forward for a city deal for the Greater Geelong and Great Ocean Road region. There is a lot of very important work being done to secure a city deal by many levels of government, including some wonderful stakeholder groups in the region and across the Corangamite electorate. This City Deals process brings together all three levels of government to create a strong investment plan really centred around action and long-term thinking. It is a very competitive process. We have got a number of city deals underway, including in Townsville, Launceston and Western Sydney, and there is a lot of competition, but we are really, I think, punching above our weight.

Tomorrow we will be turning the sod for the construction of a new $40 million global distribution centre at Avalon Airport. Avalon is Department of Defence land, leased by Avalon Airport, of course, and this is the first major development in their industry precinct. It has been made possible because the department has amended its master plan to allow a whole range of new development. It is absolutely wonderful that, with the support of the Turnbull government, the new Avalon Airport master plan is allowing this sort of development, and we think this is an absolute game changer for the region. This will really give other companies the incentive to come and look at Avalon and consider setting up there. So it is really a very exciting day tomorrow. As I say, we are working very, very hard to secure a city deal for our great region.