Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ER () (): I'm proud to represent an electorate that has a wide array of small businesses and manufacturers that contribute greatly to our economy and to our social cohesion whilst employing, training and skilling thousands of local men and women. There are over 12,000 businesses active in Macarthur, including Dumaresq Street Cinema, Southwest Automotive, the Minto Fruit Orchard, Papillons cafe, King Kebab and many others, offering a wide array of services to meet the needs of local people and, in particular, train our young people to work in the many and varied industries in Macarthur.

We're fortunate to have over a thousand manufacturing industries operating in Macarthur, producing a huge array of goods and services that are exported around the country and abroad. One business is involved in producing defence materiel and exports to over 80 countries around the world, which is just amazing. Manufacturers such as Woolstar, which produces Australian-made wool and bedding products and wool accessories, export all around the world and produces high-quality goods with a high return on the products. WE Platt designs and manufactures weapon mounts for military vehicles. Noumi produces quality products such as the MILKLAB nut milks that are used in our local cafes.

DECO Australia produces high-quality materials, coating aluminium and other metals that are used around the country and abroad for things such as signs you see at railway stations and non-flammable cladding for high-rise buildings. It is really high quality material that is exported and wanted around the world. I had the pleasure of inviting the Prime Minister out to DECO recently, where he opened DECO's newly built innovation centre and testing laboratory. It is one of the best testing and research laboratories for building products in the country, and it was a real pleasure to have the Prime Minister there—not for the first time but for the first time as Prime Minister. He's visited DECO several times in the past. We were also fortunate to have the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, visit Noumi Ltd to see their high-quality foods manufacturing in Macarthur.

I am very optimistic about our future when I see the business and the manufacturers in Macarthur and what they're doing for the country and our young people. Our $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund it will help these businesses to improve and get ready for export futures, and I wish them all well.