Broadmeadows, Victoria
[check against delivery]
Today we mark the beginning of Ford’s second 85 years in Australia.
We honour a tradition or excellence and innovation that goes back more than eight decades:
- a tradition that has given us the Ford Falcon and so much more besides
- a tradition we are here not just to celebrate, but to renew.
It is important to understand the past, but my main interest is in giving blue-collar workers a future – here at Broadmeadows, down at Geelong, and throughout Ford’s supply chain.
It is in creating quality jobs, sustainable jobs – jobs that demand high skills and pay good wages.
My passion for manufacturing is well known.
It is a passion I know everyone here shares.
We understand how important manufacturing is:
- to Australia’s productivity and prosperity
- and to the balance and resilience of our economy.
We understand how important it is:
- as an incubator and storehouse of advanced technical know-how
- as a breeding and proving ground for new ideas
- and as an earner of income for the country.
There is one other thing we understand, and that we will never forget.
Manufacturing employs a million hard-working Australians.
It sustains families and communities in every corner of the country.
It pays the mortgage, gets the kids to school, and puts food on the table.
Not just for manufacturing workers themselves, but for all the other workers who depend on them.
Workers in services.
Workers in mining and agriculture.
Manufacturing uses around $140 billion worth of inputs from these sectors every year.
Where would they be without that business?
Manufacturing is the key to maintaining Australian living standards.
It is the phenomenal productivity of manufacturing that allows us to devote so many resources to other things.
It underpins our way of life.
It is great to see the fiftieth-anniversary Falcon roll off the production line.
Yet no matter how exciting the technology …
… no matter how significant the environmental benefits
… no matter how great the economic potential
… we must never lose sight of the human dimension.
When we invest in manufacturing, we aren’t just investing in new machinery – we are investing in the men and women who operate that machinery.
We aren’t just investing in new products – we are investing in the workers who build those products.
This is more than an occasion to celebrate a car.
It is an occasion to celebrate the workers behind the car – the workers who make things – at this plant, in this industry, and across the nation.