Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure that I rise today to inform the House of the recent founding of the Edinburgh Industry Alliance, which is based in my electorate of Spence. Regrettably, the northern suburbs of Adelaide certainly felt the impact of the closure of the General Motors-Holden manufacturing plant in October 2017. Many thought that this would spell the end of the manufacturing industry in the suburb built around it. The north had to pivot, and it did so—particularly toward advanced manufacturing, which, of course, includes defence manufacturing. Spence is home to the Edinburgh Defence Precinct, which includes both RAAF Edinburgh and Defence Science and Technology Group, so it's no surprise that our local area is ready to have its defence industry capabilities utilised and expanded upon.

In late August this year, the Edinburgh Industry Alliance was launched as a partnership between companies such as Lionsgate Business Park, who now administer the former GM-H plant; Century Engineering; Eptec Group; Levett Engineering; Sonnex; Williams Metal Fabrication; XTEK; BiORG; and Aimpoint RPL. It's an industry group with a mandate to create jobs and increase the economic output of Adelaide's northern suburbs. It should be both commended and supported.

The north of Adelaide is also home to major defence primes such as Lockheed Martin Australia, SAAB Australia, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrup Grumman. The establishment of a defence industry group that will offer industry collaboration and specialisation when working with these primes and government will create confidence in both the quality of works capable within our local area and the capacity to undertake large-scale projects which require various forms of specialisation. There are a number of businesses, business peak bodies and groups that operate in Spence, such as Salisbury Business Association, Gawler Business Development Group, Northern Economic Leaders and the Stretton Centre that operates through the City of Playford, which is, in fact, where the Edinburgh Industry Alliance is located.

The Edinburgh Industry Alliance joining this list of northern business groups is definitely welcome, particularly during economic times such as these. I would like to thank a number of representatives from members of the Edinburgh Industry Alliance and of the defence primes that they work with, such as from BAE Systems Australia, for participating in the Spence Jobs and Skills Summit Roundtable that I spoke about in this place earlier this week. I would particularly like to thank Mark Robinson and Stephan Nel, both of the Edinburgh Industry Alliance and of Aimpoint RPL and Sonnex respectively, for their collaboration throughout the process. Their involvement definitely contributed to its success.