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Legislative Assembly
 
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS AND ESTIMATES COMMITTEE

17 June 2020
Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates
Frank McGuire  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:22): 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. I want to continue prosecuting the case for Broadmeadows to become a prototype for revitalisation and for the critical industries and jobs of the future that we need.

I want to define that: we have this unique offer; we have investment from the private sector—a $500 million investor into the two Ford sites. What this investor is saying that he wants to do is to use technology and to have advanced manufacturing, which is what we want, and make this niche manufacturing. This is really critical at this time. As we have seen, because of the coronavirus we need to take out the sovereign risk. We need to have independent supply chains. We have the Ford Motor Company on the other part of this site. What are they doing? They are manufacturing 100 000 face masks to fight the coronavirus. We have nearby CSL, one of our leading companies on the ASX, and what are they doing? They are making and manufacturing the life-saving blood plasma that is being looked at for how we come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus.

The next proposition we have is two city deals. I have campaigned long and hard, and we have got these city deals—a commitment from the Australian government—and one is for the north-west. What I am arguing is that Broadmeadows can be the prototype to bring back these new industries and jobs, to make it a priority precinct. I would also argue: look at it being a free trade zone. Let us look at being creative about how you actually attract industry in. I have studied these models where they have been successful overseas, and this is something that is really being looked at right now as to how you can do these. Digitally ring fencing them is the way that you can do it to have the security, but it is a way of bringing back these areas and these regions.

I think that that is incredibly important right now, and particularly how we can actually make that happen. I am trying to draw that together as chair of the Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board, and I am calling it Broadmeadows Revitalisation 4.0 to make the point that we want to have a laser-like focus on what the new industries and jobs are. I am glad to hear the Prime Minister of Australia using exactly that language, and that matches up with the commitment the Victorian government has made and I have pursued to try and make that happen also.

Then, if you drill down to the third tier of government, Hume City Council is boasting that it has $200 million in savings. Well, I am saying now is the time to put that to work—to invest and to do that in such a way that you actually get the maximum benefit for the whole municipality. Right now the epicentre for all these things is the state district of Broadmeadows, where we have this wonderful opportunity, and particularly when the investments can be made at record low interest rates. So I think that is the opportunity and the time we have.

I want to add to that that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has written back to me about the future of the Maygar Barracks. In times of existential threat Australia turns to Broadmeadows, and that goes all the way back to the First World War. That is where the diggers, the light horsemen and the VC winners were trained and dispatched to fight at Gallipoli and then at the Western Front, where they were hailed as heroes. So we have got this opportunity here with this incredibly strategic piece of land. The minister has informed me that the defence department will be making an analysis of its future use.

I think there are two propositions here. The Prime Minister has also argued about how to get better connection to fight the other existential threat that we face, bushfires, and he wants a better alignment of what the professionals are doing and what the volunteers are doing, coming off the worst fires in Australia’s history over summer. This is an absolute epicentre for that, because this is the base where they did a lot of the logistics to fight the fires in Victoria, and they have been doing it since Black Saturday and before as well. So there is that opportunity.

Then there is also an opportunity to say, ‘Well, what else are you going to do with that land? Is that going to be used for new industries or jobs? What’s the future purpose of that?’. So I think there is a huge opportunity to actually turn it back into one of the economic powerhouses. It has underwritten our record run of prosperity, so now is the time to actually say, ‘Bring Broadmeadows back; this is the place where we can get the best value for spend and investment for the future’.