Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields—Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister for Building, and Minister for Corrections) (20:21): Australia celebrated a big anniversary this week. It has been 75 years since the first wholly Australian-made car, the Holden FX, rolled off the production line. On seeing the first Holden, then Prime Minister Ben Chifley—a Labor legend who believed in Australian manufacturing—famously said, "She's a beauty!" These three words spoke to the local skill and ingenuity that not only built the Holden car but also powered a domestic manufacturing sector of the highest calibre that has employed millions over the years and shaped modern Australia.

The manufacturing sector continues to be a leading employer in south-west Sydney. My electorate of Macquarie Fields has the eighth-largest manufacturing workforce in the State. My electorate boasts many locally owned businesses, based largely in the Ingleburn and Minto industrial areas, that specialise in traditional and advanced manufacturing. Arguably the most famous is the Darrell Lea factory at Ingleburn. Darrell Lea is a proud Australian creation whose Ingleburn factory employs 300 people and is the largest manufacturing site for liquorice, rocky road and liquorice allsorts in the world. Earlier this month I was pleased to attend, alongside the Prime Minister and the Federal member for Macarthur, Dr Michael Freelander, the reopening of the newly expanded Ingleburn site, designed to meet the growing appetite overseas for Darrell Lea sweets. What a remarkable achievement for an iconic Australian manufacturer.

There are other manufacturing success stories in the Macquarie Fields electorate. Eilbeck Cranes and Eilbeck Heavy Machining is a fourth‑generation family-owned business, currently led by Tom Eilbeck and his son Charlie. The Eilbeck company employs 200 workers across four manufacturing sites in Ingleburn, where the largest crane ever built in Australia was made. When I travel around my electorate and the State as the Minister for Industry and Trade and I see Eilbeck cranes in factories I take a great deal of pride in the local manufacturing ingenuity. DECO Australia, founded by Ross Doonan, is another local family-owned manufacturing business with a large factory in Minto, which is also expanding. It specialises in timber-look aluminium products. The Prime Minister and I have also visited that factory on a number of occasions. To the Prime Minister's credit, he promised that if he was elected he would come back to DECO and open this advanced manufacturing business. True to his word, he did open it and it is a great boost for local manufacturing.

There are many other businesses that I could talk about if I had the time. The success of these local manufacturing businesses illustrates the enormous potential of the sector, not only in my electorate but also across New South Wales. Most of this potential was lost by the previous Liberal‑Nationals Government. The number of manufacturing jobs lost over the past two years should come as no surprise to anybody when the former Government was obsessed with building trains, trams, buses and ferries anywhere but here in New South Wales— and of course many were riddled with defects. The then Liberal Premier insulted our manufacturing workers and businesses by saying that our State is not good at building things. Our State has a proud history of building things and Labor has a proud history of backing domestic manufacturing, as the legacy of Ben Chifley shows. The Minns Labor Government is continuing this tradition with our commitment to building things again here in New South Wales. This is the platform that we were elected on and this is the platform that we are determined to deliver.

Our Government's commitment to backing our manufacturing sector is underscored by New South Wales having its first ever Minister for Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement. Through TAFE, we are investing in the skills needed to revive and grow our traditional and advanced manufacturing sectors in Western Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra. This is about creating jobs, raising wages, growing our economy and empowering small business to be bigger businesses. The Government believes New South Wales is great at making things. I see this in my electorate, but as the Minister all across New South Wales. Under a Labor Government no longer will domestic manufacturing be ignored and abandoned. Because, like Ben Chifley said 75 years ago, we can make some real beauties.