The Morrison government has announced amid its election campaign a total of $48 million (US$33.4 million) in grants for seven South Australian businesses in hopes of bringing manufacturing back to Australia.
Minister for Industry, Energy, and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said South Australia has a long and proud history in manufacturing.
“This funding is a big win for jobs and another vote of confidence in South Australia’s advanced manufacturing capability,” Taylor said in a release on May 9.
Southern Launch, one of the seven businesses that will share in the funding, has welcomed the grant of up to $4.95 million to support the development and launch of a rocket within two years by local rocket manufacturer Access to Space (ATSpace).
Founder of ATSpace Yensen Chen highlighted the boost in jobs and research that will follow from the grant.
“This funding will spearhead technology that will [allow us to] be better placed to support the local supply chain,” Chen said.
“This grant will go a long way to ensure that our rocket projects will create more local jobs, including logistics, construction, and manufacturing while providing greater opportunities for our research organisations.”
Mayne Pharmaceuticals, a 40-year-old company with facilities based in Salisbury, Australia and Greenville, NC, U.S., is also receiving up to $4.8 million to expand its capacity to produce chronic pain medications and secure the longevity of its manufacturing site.
CEO Scott Richards announced that with the funding, the company seeks to “more than double the encapsulation and blister packaging capacity and introduce new technologies to support the export of select solid oral dose products.”
Federal Labor Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman said that Australia needs to learn the lessons from COVID-19 about supporting local manufacturing.
“What COVID showed us, is that we have huge gaps; gaps in key things like masks, hand sanitisers, trains,” Templeman told Sky News.
“Labor’s policy is, for instance, about having a national train manufacturing program so that all the states get together as one country and we can have a thriving train manufacturing sector.”
The five other businesses included in the manufacturing investment include Hallett Concrete, Orora, Inovor Technologies, and Samuel Smith & Son.
