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Legislative Assembly
 
Public Accounts and Estimates Committee: budget estimates 2016-17

22 March 2017
Statements on reports
FRANK McGUIRE  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) — I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee's inquiry into the budget estimates for 2016–17, particularly in relation to the contribution by the Minister for Industry and Employment, who referred to how working in a coordinated fashion presents an opportunity to drive strategic advantage from that collaboration across economic portfolios within government.

I want to continue my contribution on this subject and its importance, particularly not just for the Victorian government but also as to how this can be employed in direct connection with the Australian government. This is critical to drive economic development. The importance is that nowhere is the impact of globalisation and mechanisation more acutely felt than in Broadmeadows, which has reached a tipping point, struggling with deindustrialisation in a time of terror. To create opportunity out of adversity we have to understand how globalisation can be harnessed, because it has evolved. It is being led by knowledge, not just trade. Knowledge is crossing borders and transforming the world. This is why we must change the political system to adapt to this new reality.

About a decade ago I helped bring Silicon Valley to Broadmeadows, where Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems established the world's second ideas lab. The one-term coalition government cut the funding, and my argument is that this would not happen in marginal or safely held coalition seats. This is the critical proposition about the way the political system is being gamed and must change. I want to acknowledge the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade for bringing Silicon Valley's globally renowned accelerator program 500 Startups to establish its Australian headquarters in Victoria after securing a funding grant from LaunchVic, the Andrews Labor government's $60 million start-up fund.

This is an important proposition because 500 Melbourne will help accelerate at least 40 of Australia's best start-ups over the next two years as well as providing access to their global network and other Silicon Valley venture capitalists. This is the proposition that we must understand and move on, and I am arguing that this needs to be bipartisan because we need to get the Australian government to actually realise what is going on in these communities and what is happening.

I was disappointed to receive a letter from Greg Hunt, the former federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. The house will understand that his replacement was the fourth minister in as many years. Mr Hunt acknowledges that the automotive passenger vehicle manufacturing sector has been in transition since 2013. He realises that there are difficulties for Australian workers and communities during this period, but he still does not want to address the critical issue that I raised by identifying and revealing an unspent $1.324 billion in the Automotive Transformation Scheme and how this can be reinvested at least in part in Broadmeadows, where it is needed most.

I remind the house that the convergence of two coalition governments left unemployment in Broadmeadows at 26.4 per cent and youth unemployment at more than 40 per cent. This is the critical issue that we need to address — the systemic problems — instead of arguing across the chamber. I am trying to go to the critical issues that need to be addressed, because here is the offer that Broadmeadows has on the table at the moment. I have identified these propositions. The Land 400 vehicle decision will be up in the next year as well in regard to what can be done, and instead we get an offer for a $29 million detention centre for people who have been convicted of serious crimes, some of whom may be convicted child sex abusers, drug traffickers or members of outlaw bikie gangs.

The submission that was put before the federal parliamentary inquiry from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection even had the suggestion that there were no heritage issues regarding this location. Here are the heritage issues: this is the site of the Maygar Barracks. Leslie Maygar won a Victoria Cross in the Boer War. This is where the diggers, the light horsemen and the Victoria Cross winners were trained and dispatched to fight at Gallipoli. Then, with the ebb and flow of history, this community stepped up when the biggest crisis that Australia faced was to populate or perish. This is where wave upon wave of postwar migrants arrived and underwrote prosperity for generations. That is just one part of the heritage.

We are in the countdown to Anzac Day. These values will be upheld. It is the same for the Western Front, Villers-Bretonneux and right through some of the most amazing, nation-defining battles. This is the only offer we have got on the table from the federal government. I am calling on the Prime Minister of Australia to rethink this situation. It is unsustainable, and it needs to be fixed.