Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:14): I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry into the budget estimates and the contribution from the Treasurer as Minister for Economic Development on how Victoria is trying to strengthen economic performance with a range of mechanisms. We have seen a significant shift in what is now occurring, and we have now a national cabinet that is actually addressing—beyond ideology or political battles and in the public interest—what are the key economic drivers that we need. I think that is a fantastic advance, and it also creates a wonderful opportunity. I want to put up a unique offer. I want to make Broadmeadows the prototype for the key comeback industries that we need. We need advanced, niche manufacturing. We are also looking at how we turn around housing—affordable housing and how we do that—and then cheaper, greener energy.

The opportunity is this: we have attracted a $500 million investor into the old Ford sites in Broadmeadows and Geelong and his stated objective is to do these new industries and jobs and drive them through technology. So that is one critical asset. The other one is we have already had a commitment from the Australian government for two City Deals: one is for the north-west and the other for the south-east. The Broadmeadows aspect of this is that it should be the epicentre for the north-west proposition and it should be one of the priority precincts. Just to reaffirm the critical point: the Ford Motor Company is now manufacturing 100 000 face masks, which are vital in how we actually deal with the coronavirus, and CSL, one of our leading companies on the ASX, is using its incredible science and life-saving blood products, particularly with plasma, to look at how we address the coronavirus and how we try to help with a vaccine for that. This is the old economic engine room, and my argument is: go to where we have these assets with this unique opportunity. The third proposition, financially, is that Hume City Council boasted it has $200 million in savings.

Now is the chance to actually bring these forces together, and the mechanism that we have to draw this is the Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board. I am delighted to again be appointed as the chairman, and I actually just want to pull these ideas together so we can see how we can do it. To get to the national cabinet I would like to offer the Premier to be the patron of this strategy so we have Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board 4.0 with a focus on job creation and make that priority one. We have then the federal government to connect in its job creation incentives and programs—obviously this is how they can honour their election commitment for a city deal for Melbourne’s north and west. Then we have the private sector investors also—how do we connect them in for job creation and employers—and then whatever international connections we can also bring.

I want to also say what a great initiative it was for the Victorian government to connect up the universities with a $350 million fund to support them with capital works, applied research and research partnerships to boost Victoria’s productivity and economy as the state recovers. This is really important for applied science and research, and here is how we can build on that. We have already established the Hume Multiversity, the collaboration with Victoria University, Deakin University and La Trobe University. So I want to see how we leverage that for local jobs for local people. Then we go down into the TAFEs and the registered training organisations to make sure we have got the apprenticeships, and we also bring the unions and the industry associations together.

The lines of report would obviously be to the key ministers—the Minister for Suburban Development all the way to the Treasurer, whose role is critical in this as well—and I am happy to provide this graphic to Hansard to see how we bring it all together. So here is the opportunity, here is the place, here is the chance to bring back Broadmeadows, because we need it. In times of existential threat Australia turns to Broadmeadows—from the First World War to after the Second World War, when we needed to populate or perish, multiculturalism was forged on these factory floors. This is the vision for the future, now is the time to deliver and this is the best opportunity so that we can bring it all together for the national interest.