Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2020–21 Budget Estimates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:37): I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry into the budget estimates 2020–21 and the contribution from the Minister for Economic Development on how Victoria is trying to strengthen economic performance with a range of mechanisms. Today I want to report a new deal for women. A world-first opportunity to improve the lives of women is being established in Broadmeadows. This strategy combines a network of support for the safety and security of families with internationally proven innovation to help unemployed women start their own businesses and create jobs. For the first time, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’s program for microfinance will be established in Australia. Starting in Broadmeadows, the plan is to expand nationwide, creating 6000 jobs for women in the next two years. The program combines microfinance loans with peer support and mentoring to help women establish their own small businesses. It focuses on older women, those with disabilities and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. For years I have pursued this initiative and held meetings with the Nobel laureate, who has just been awarded an Olympic Laurel by the International Olympic Committee for his business accelerator. Grameen Australia, subsequent to a feasibility study reporting in 2018, defined Broadmeadows as the launching pad in Australia.

The Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board has backed the Comeback strategy that endorses this initiative, but also adds a proposal to connect it with the microfinancing into a centre for social enterprise in Broadmeadows, critically by linking it with the Victorian government’s response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence, the Orange Door network, which provides free services for adults, children and young people experiencing family violence. Financial independence is the next step to empowering women. The Andrews Labor government is on track to open every Orange Door network across Victoria by the end of next year, ensuring families can access coordinated family violence and child wellbeing support no matter where they live. The Minister for Prevention of Family Violence recently announced the Orange Door sites have now been confirmed in every region and that the network should begin operating in the Hume Moreland area by the end of the year, with a lease to be signed for a site in Broadmeadows. Five local service partners—Berry Street, Uniting, DPV Health, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association—will bring the Orange Door network to the communities in the Hume Moreland region. The Orange Door network is a $448 million Australian-first initiative for adults, children and young people who are experiencing or using family violence and families needing extra support with the wellbeing and development of children. It is that critical. It is that fundamental for your chance in life. The Orange Door brings together workers from specialist family violence, child and family, Aboriginal and men’s services to provide help and support for families. I want to thank the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, who recently joined me in Broadmeadows, on these initiatives and for her commitment to rolling them out statewide. This is generationally defining.

I also want to thank the Australian government’s Minister for Women’s Economic Security for backing the program for microfinancing with a $3.5 million investment, because this will give greater flexibility and opportunities for women as well. This is part of the Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board 4.0 strategy to combine the three tiers of government, business and civil society to drive economic and social development.

Continuing this theme of economic development and collaboration, I want to highlight the view, published today, of Australian Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Doherty that ‘It’s a no-brainer’ that the manufacturing of mRNA vaccines should be in Victoria. The Victorian government has pledged $50 million to develop the industry, and here we have the absolute opportunity to do something in the national interest. This is a Team Australia moment, and this is where we have to put partisanship and politics aside and invest with the best. And it is clear: the Olympic Games have shown how we can be world leaders through leadership and excellence. And medical research is one of the only other areas where we are genuinely world leaders. The infrastructure is here, the elegant science, the industry, the acumen, the clear manufacturing nous that we have established. So I call on the Australian government to invest with the best and make sure this is a Team Australia moment.