Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While many people are still doing it tough, wages are growing, inflation is falling and more than a million jobs have been created under the Albanese government, which is a record for a parliamentary term. I'm pleased to report that Labor is backing in jobs in my electorate of Blair as well, with around 14,600 new jobs created since the last election—an increase of nearly eight per cent.

This is a tribute to local workers and employers and the government's responsible economic management, but it's also off the back of a number of major developments in the Ipswich region. One of these is the $400 million, carbon neutral Suntory drinks manufacturing facility at Swanbank, which generated around 450 jobs during construction and will provide 160 full-time ongoing jobs upon completion. In September I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the facility as they celebrated the start of production in a minor way—they're gearing up. I met Steph, from Mount Crosby in my electorate, who works in the lab and was very excited about her new job.

On top of that, in August French beauty and cosmetic giant L'Oreal opened a $40 million distribution centre in neighbouring Redbank—in your electorate, Mr Speaker. It will employ 70 workers by the end of the year. That follows a number of major employers establishing themselves in Redbank, including an Australia Post mail distribution centre, a Coles distribution centre and Rheinmetall's Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence. In this year's budget we provided $15.3 million over seven years to support the production and export of more than a hundred Boxer heavy weapons carrier vehicles to Germany, as part of a $3 billion contract. This is the biggest defence export agreement in Australia's history, supporting 600 direct local jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs in the supply chain, and involving 300 local companies.

On top of that, JBS has put hundreds of new workers in jobs and another shift on its Dinmore meat processing plant in response to increased demand for Australian beef. There are about 2,000 people working there at Dinmore. This is one of the biggest employers in the region, and it's very good that the Albanese government was able to have the China ban on JBS exports lifted last year, along with the ban on Kilcoy Global Foods, another major abattoir in my electorate, which provides just under 1,900 jobs. It's such an important employer in the upper Somerset region.

While it's just outside my electorate, the $400 million Lockyer Valley Foods cannery and food processing facility planned for Withcott in the Lockyer Valley food bowl, just up the road from Ipswich, is very likely to employ many people from my electorate. I had the privilege of representing the Lockyer Valley in this chamber some years ago. This very exciting Lockyer Valley project will create more than 120 new jobs initially, increasing to more than 500 jobs over time. It will be a major boost for jobs in Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and Ipswich.

What these major investments show is that business have confidence not just in the Australian economy but in the Ipswich and West Moreton region as well, as we boost supply chain resilience and provide opportunities for locals to work where they live.

With so many new jobs being created and more and more people moving to the Ipswich region for work and lifestyle, we need to be able to house them all. There are now 260,000 people living in Ipswich, so our $32 billion Homes for Australia Plan includes a significant increase in funding and support for my home state and for my electorate of Blair. In the Ipswich region, the Albanese government's expanded Home Guarantee Scheme will help more than 3,550 homebuyers in Ipswich to buy their own home, and has done so already. One of the highest rates of take-up across the country is in my electorate, and this will help free up rental stock. What we really need is the Greens and the coalition to stop blocking our Help to Buy legislation so we can give more working families in my community the chance to realise the great Australian dream of homeownership.

We've allocated a further $199.2 million to help the Queensland government enable infrastructure like roads, sewerage and water, to boost the supply of new homes in growth corridors, like Springfield and Ripley in Ipswich, and provided almost $400 million to fast-track the construction of more social housing rentals through the Social Housing Accelerator program, including projects in Ipswich and the Somerset region. We're seeing 1,300 dwellings supported in the first round of the HAFF. I expect that many of these will be built in Blair, and that's good for my electorate.

House adjourned at 17:00