Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Geelong is a pretty resilient place. It's a city that has faced its fair share of challenges over the last decade. When I was first elected, 10 years ago, we knew that we had a Labor government that had our back. That Labor government established funding for the Epworth, delivering better health outcomes for Geelong and the regions. It delivered the Geelong Ring Road. It established the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund, which generated businesses and jobs throughout Geelong. It supported local science with a $3 million commitment to the Geelong Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases. Labor secured the NDIS headquarters for Geelong, delivered a $37 million funding boost for Deakin University's carbon fibre research centre as part of a full 50 per cent in the growth of Deakin during the term of that Labor government and created the Northern Community Hub, with Diversitat, to help the northern suburbs, which had been hit hardest by the closure of Ford and Alcoa.

Labor has always believed in Geelong, and we match our belief with investment in the city and its people. Bill Shorten visited Geelong and Torquay last Friday and met with leaders of our city to understand what we're on about and what we need in order to thrive going forward. Bill Shorten and Labor understand just how critical federal government support can be to ensuring that Geelong prospers.

Sadly, the end of the Labor government signalled an end to any support for Geelong. It signalled an end to big thinking and an end to projects that helped our city grow. We need to see Simonds Stadium finished. We need a convention centre in the heart of our city to unleash our booming tourism and dining industries. We need to bring manufacturing jobs back to Geelong by investing and planning for the future of re-industrialised and connected northern suburbs so that we can re-skill and grow our local economy. Bill Shorten's visit last week is just the beginning. I can tell you, a future Labor government will deliver for Geelong.

We have seen the current government move from being neglectful of our town to attacking it. We learn today from the Geelong Advertiser, our nation's paper of record, that the Deputy Prime Minister last Thursday said:

This facility at Berrimah will help replace some of the work we're currently doing in Geelong …

So we're moving jobs and work from Melbourne to Darwin, that's a good outcome for the North.

That is a remarkable statement. It is the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia crowing about the fact that his government has facilitated the removal of jobs from Geelong. If the decentralisation of government is to mean anything, the government should actually be trying to facilitate the movement of jobs to Geelong, but we have a Deputy Prime Minister who is crowing about the fact that his government has taken jobs from our city. He's got form on this. He also conflated Geelong with Melbourne. This is a government that does not care about Geelong, and it needs to be removed.