Tuesday, 7 June 2022

 Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (12:49): Broadmeadows has been reimagined while confronting the catastrophes of our times. The vision being delivered is to help this proud, resilient community accelerate through deindustrialisation from a potential rust belt to a brain belt. The latest success is in textile manufacturing, adding to the $1 billion investment I have inspired for new industries and jobs at the derelict Ford site and Broadmeadows being redefined as an epicentre for Australia’s vaccine-manufacturing ecosystem, saving lives and livelihoods at home and abroad.

Tontine made insulation for the motor vehicle industry before Ford closed, marking the demise of Australia’s once-proud automotive industry, devastating Broadmeadows in 2016 and defining the loss of Australia’s manufacturing scale. But I am delighted Tontine is part of the comeback strategy for Broadmeadows. The company has leveraged a Victorian government investment of $500 000 with a $5 million investment and innovation. The result is Tontine will have the capacity to make more than 1.5 million quilts and doonas per year, almost enough to stretch from Melbourne to Perth. This will expand Tontine’s employment of 140 local jobs. The Tontine Group CEO, Ian Shannon, was generous, saying that he was delighted to be part of the comeback strategy. I also want to thank him for the enlightened self-interest model being part of that, because the company donated doonas and quilts to the Vinnies centres in Glenroy, Sunbury and Dandenong to protect the most vulnerable people against the icy winter blasts.