MANUFACTURERS in Melbourne’s west stand to benefit from a $1 billion-plus federal government package to support Australia’s manufacturing industry.
The government’s A Plan for Australian Jobs aims to shore up local jobs and tap into a bigger slice of the resources pie while making a concerted play for the growing Asian market.
The plan is predicted to be worth $1.6 billion a year in extra work to local businesses and has been backed by the manufacturing union and key industry players.
Victoria’s manufacturing sector is worth $28 billion a year to the state economy and employs more than 310,000 people.
Launching the plan on Sunday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was essential to stop these jobs being forced offshore by the cripplingly high Australian dollar.
“I believe modern Australia can have a great blue-collar future. By that I mean that we can continue to be a manufacturing nation; we can be a nation in which people make their living through blue-collar jobs — blue-collar jobs that aren’t intermittent or insecure or poorly paid, blue-collar jobs that are highly skilled and highly paid.”
LeadWest business and projects manager Craig Rowley said the commitment was very welcome in Melbourne’s west. “People say manufacturing is in decline because its share of the economy is in relative decline, but it’s just that other sectors are growing faster.”
The government will spend $500 million on 10 new ‘industry innovation precincts’ by next year, one of which will be in south-east Melbourne.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Paul Bastian said the most promising part of the plan was the prospect of tapping into the wealth generated by the resources sector. “Every billion dollars we drag out of the resource sector, into local content, onto our factory floors, sustains or creates 10,000 jobs in this country.”
