Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

The resilience shown by our manufacturers, in particular in regional Australia, during COVID-19 has been essential to support our COVID-19 health response. There have been some remarkable stories of which we're all aware. Med-Con was our only manufacturer of surgical masks at the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a family business, based in Shepparton. Their machines were invented by the company founder 30 years ago. With the government's backing, they will now produce more than 59 million masks by December. They're employing 25 more people, they're providing vital supplies to our National Medical Stockpile and, importantly, they've now increased our national capacity long term. That is exactly the type of example we're aiming to build with our $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy.