Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin by thanking the people of my electorate, the electorate of Calwell, for re-electing me as their representative in the 47th Parliament. It's a great privilege, and I'm sure other colleagues would feel exactly the same. It's a great privilege to serve in this House, and I will continue to work each and every day to put our community's interests and needs firmly on the national agenda.

We have a Labor government because in times of change as well as in times of crisis people come to rely on the role of government, and we as a party actually believe in governing in the interests of our constituencies and the broader Australian community. We put forward a plan that speaks to and delivers on the needs of ordinary Australians, and they are largely the people of my electorate of Calwell. We put forward a plan that appeals to our sense of optimism and hope, and, in Prime Minister Albanese, we put forward someone who leads a government that has set the policy framework for a better future.

In thanking the people of Calwell, I want to also thank the many volunteers who helped in my campaign. There is a lot of work that goes into these campaigns, and I'm grateful for the support of each and every person, each and every volunteer, and all those who have helped contribute to my re-election. I'm grateful and heartened by their generous support and by their solidarity. I will work hard not to let them down, and I will work hard to ensure that their interests are paramount in my work throughout the 47th parliament.

One of the key areas that I will focus on will be supporting the government's agenda of reviving our proud manufacturing history as a model for the future. My electorate of Calwell is the heart of Australian manufacturing, and we must make sure that that heart beats into the future. I use the word 'heart' purposely, because we cannot secure our supply chains and economic security if we don't have a strong manufacturing base that pumps life into the industries of today and those we wish to energise and sustain into the future. The minister for industry will, himself, understand this all too well in terms of our own corresponding electorates and the concentration of manufacturing businesses and what it means for our communities and their impact on this nation's future. A future made in Australia means that we must make things locally; we must make them here. It means that we invest in the skills and workforce that allow us not only to put forward our agenda but to secure it well into the future, so that industries are secured, so that supply chains are revived, so that families can once again have the job security that has allowed so many people in my electorate to build a life for themselves and for their families and so that we can secure our nation's economic security through a sovereign capability that can help our economy become crisis-proof.

If there was ever a time when we moved from the theoretical to the stark reality that nearly a decade of neglect has caused, it was during COVID and its shocks to the global economy. It demonstrated to us that we can only secure our place in the regional and global economy through a future industrial base that is diverse, includes a high-tech manufacturing capability and is made in Australia. Securing our place means investing in the green tech boom, not as an ideological inclination but very much in the way of transforming our economy to meet changing global market conditions, technologies and business models. Securing ourselves against international competitors and overseas dumping measures means investing in local resources and local industry through a real commitment to our domestic manufacturing capabilities.

I've spoken in this parliament many times on how the Ford factory in my electorate that shut shop in 2016 was more than just an icon of Australian car manufacturing. It was a major employer of thousands of postwar European migrants who came here under the Arthur Calwell migration program. Jobs were key to establishing the basis of a new life in a faraway country. Australia needed their labour in order to grow, and these migrants needed hope for a better life for themselves and their families. On the assembly lines and factory floors, they not only built cars but forged stories of mateship and camaraderie and built suburbs and communities around them. Factories formed an integral part of entire suburbs and streets that brought cultures and faiths together and rose to build contemporary multicultural Australia. These workers were embraced by the Labor Party and the union movement, which collectively defended their rights and aided their integration into the Australian community—a community that they shaped and changed.

I've also said that these migrants didn't just make 'Australian-made'; they in fact made Australia. This is why, with my focus on Australian manufacturing, jobs and the diverse communities that make up my electorate, I value the opportunity that I have been given to chair the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and to also chair the Human Rights Subcommittee in this parliament. These are areas I have long championed and look forward to making a strong contribution to in this 47th parliament. Migration and human rights speak to two key areas I'm most passionate about: What do we want our modern Australia to be? And what do we want Australia's place in the world to be? These two issues also speak to the refugees and migrants in my electorate of Calwell. We don't want to see the entrenchment of a two-class system in Australia—whether that be a migration system based on guest workers, masked as skilled migration and open to exploitation, or a migration system based on people living here in Australia, lingering indefinitely and cruelly, on protection visas.

Our government's commitment to abolishing temporary protection visas marks a fundamental shift towards hope and common sense and away from the previous government's approach that discredited us as a country and denied our sense of community. I'm proud to be part of a government that will restore humanity to those long denied it, a government that will grab hold of the opportunities and human potential already amongst us in our community. The potential from all of the untapped skills is critical to our economy at a time when skill shortages are becoming an increasing threat to economic growth.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour and the member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.