ANDREW COCHINEAS: It’s not often that a business gets to host the Prime Minister and the Minister for Industry and Science at one of its facilities, but today that’s the honour of ABC Refinery and the broader Pallion Group. You might not know that this is one of 24 facilities in Marrickville alone that Pallion Group Entities maintain. It also happens to be the newest and the most technologically advanced. And that’s because in the coming months, when this facility is complete, it will be the largest automated precious metal investment form baring facility in the world. And to put that into perspective, this facility alone is capable of producing over 480 kilograms of gold and silver, precious metal investment great bars per hour. That’s $42 million Australian worth of precious metal investment great bars per hour. And this facility and the technology behind it is actually a testament to our people. It’s a testament to my Pallion family, to ABC Bullion, to the people at ABC Refinery and the broader Pallion Group. You should all be incredibly proud of this facility. You should be incredibly proud to know that you are responsible for one of the most significant private companies in Australia. You should know that you are responsible for one of the largest exporters in Australia. Over $8 billion per annum and over $10 billion in annual revenue.

You should know, and you should be proud that you have solidified the position of Pallion Group, ABC Bullion and ABC Refinery as a premier precious metals group in international landscape. You make a significant contribution to the international landscape. You make a significant contribution to the Australian economy. It is your skill set, it is your manufacturing prowess, it’s your due diligence, it is your effort that makes this company great. I am proud of you, I’m also incredibly proud to introduce to you today, the 31^st Prime Minister of Australia, our local member and another Marrickville champion, the honourable Mr Anthony Albanese.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you so much, Andrew, and I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting and pay my respect to Elders past, present, and emerging. I thank Andrew and everyone here for the very warm welcome and I'm please to do have brought my good friend, Ed Husic, the Minister for Industry and Science here today. 

One of the things that happens, if you aren't from this local hood, is Marrickville's known for its craft breweries and a whole lot of activities, Henson Park, Leichhardt Oval. One of the things that I'm really proud of is that this is also a centre of manufacturing, it's a centre of employment and industry, and this industry here is not only this business, Australia's best at what you do, it's the world's best at what you do as well and that should be a source of enormous pride to all of you.

The fact of the value, $42 million, an hour of value can be produced behind us here, is an extraordinary story. This business alone employs 300 people, most of whom, I know from going around in the past on other visits here, live in the local community, and others who want to live in this local community as well because it's such a fantastic place to live and to work. But you can be so proud of what you are doing here. 

One of the reasons why I wanted to come here and bring my Industry and Science Minister here as well is to emphasise that one of the four big themes of the campaign in which I ran to be having the honour of Australia's 31st Prime Minister, was a future made in Australia. I think that we have enormous natural advantages in this country. The resources that we have as the world's largest gold producer and one of the world's largest silver producers, for example. 

But we haven't always been good at value adding and commercialising the opportunities from the natural advantages that we have and we have, though, the biggest advantage isn't what's in the ground in this country, it's what I see before me here, our people. Our people with the skills and commitment, the fact that we're a multicultural nation, the fact that we are a smart country that can value add.

We have innovative business and Andrew, and the fact that this is essentially a family enterprise, is quite remarkable the extent to which this company's been able to succeed and prosper and thrive and it just gets bigger and bigger. This facility here, the spanking brand new facility, is just another add-on to the more than dozen facilities, of course, that are scattered around Marrickville alone, providing employment, providing good, secure work, making sure that the skills that are required to produce a Melbourne Cup, too, are handed down to next generations is so important as well. 

So I want to thank you very much for the welcome here today to say that my Government is absolutely committed to making sure that wherever possible we, instead of just exporting raw materials, which will continue to play a role, of course, these magnificent bullion bars are important as our exports and here I think it is $8 billion of exports from this company alone, it is an extraordinary figure. That's important. But where possible, as well, we should be value adding here. We should be creating maximum jobs here rather than seeing everything just exported overseas and then imported back once the value has been added. 

And one of the things that is occurring around the globe is robotics and artificial intelligence and there is no-one in the Parliament who knows more about this than Minister Husic. And the great opportunity that that presents is that whereas some people will look at that and say, oh, well, that's jobs disappearing, what it's actually doing is meaning that labour costs, as a proportion of production, are less than they used to be pre-technological change. And that changes the equation and in the 1970s and 1980s we saw a lot of jobs leave Australia because of the cost differential in labour. And here in Australia we don't want to race to the bottom in terms of to compete by reducing our wages and conditions, what we want is to lift Australia up with a race to the top so that we're competing on the basis of our quality and what we can produce, our skills, our smarts. 

And that is why the development, which is ubiquitous around the world of new technology, changes the equation for manufacturing in this country and changes the equation for why we can indeed have a future made in Australia. A high-value, high-wage economy that works for people, not the other way around. 

And that is why companies like this and the leadership that Andrew and his colleagues provide is so important, not just for you, as important as that is, it's important for Australia's future as well.

We're absolutely committed to a future made in Australia. We'll be producing a budget in a couple of weeks that has within it the commitments that we've made including the creation of a National Reconstruction Fund and other programs which are designed to really support businesses to lift up the value chain.

This is an exciting period, it's a period of massive change in the global economy but it's one in which, if Australia's smart and if we play smart, we can have enormous advantages in years ahead. 

So thank you for what you do. Thank you so much for the welcome here today and good luck in betting on the first Tuesday in November on the Melbourne Cup. Thanks very much. 

ED HUSIC, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE: You’re asking if I want to speak and I know it’s lunch. I don’t want to hold up you good people from lunch. But if I can say thank you very much Prime Minister for the chance and Andrew and the whole of you that are here today.

Manufacturing means a lot to the country because it shows our faith in our know-how, in our skill and backing our ideas and through that creating good firms and good jobs. It’s really important to the country, we don’t do enough of backing our own smarts, our own know-how, we feel somehow that makes us quite, and if I can use the expression ‘up ourselves’ that we do that. But it’s time to do a bit of strutting. Because when we see the work that you do, we need to be championing this more and more. We need to be able to show the rest of the country that Australians from all walks of life are making a difference, contributing and making us all proud.

You know, in terms of the design and the manufacturer of the Cup, all the work you are doing and within manufacturing broadly. The world around us is changing, people are thinking about how, as the Prime Minister said to use technology to sharpen up the way we operate but to also open up new opportunities for work. And it’s really important for us to see that, and you can see the investment that’s being made here. And so, from here and communities across our country where we’ve got manufacturing occurring, we are saying we are going to champion more and more of this. We are going to do more and more of this work, we are going to create the jobs that mean so much to this country. And to be able to spend some time with you all, and be able to see what you’re doing and then formally, can I say, to strut a little bit. To be able to be proud of Australian know-how and what that means and you’ve got all the members of the media here as well. And you able to say and walk with pride for what you have done. Very important.

So, to Andrew, the team, to all of you thank you very much. And as a politician who started by saying I wouldn’t talk very long, I managed to talk for very long. But I’m very proud of what you’re doing, the Prime Minister, you can hear it in his voice, the pride in terms of what you’re achieving. Thank you so much and now onwards to bigger and better.

Thank you.