Opening Remarks – Bundaberg | Prime Minister of Australia
CLIFF FLEMING, BUNDABERG BREWED DRINKS FOUNDER: Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia and distinguished guests. I thank you for coming and honouring us today, Prime Minister. It is a very important day for our family. It’s a combination of a dream, a dream where fifty-five years ago I came to Bundaberg and established a little business called Electra Breweries in Electra Street and it started with family and two employees. We moved from Bargara Road where we’ve been for a number of years and we’ve come to these new premises, which I think you’ll all agree are worldwide in their stance. There’s been many highs and lows, and wins and a few losses, and so much change, a few things though haven’t changed. We still bottle our brews in a little stubby bottle, we still call Bundaberg home and take enormous pride in sharing the name of our hometown to the world. Crucially, we remain a family owned and operated business. And that means this master brewery has been built only where it belongs. We are forever grateful for how the people of Bundaberg, our loyal partners and friends, and of course, our team of people who have worked alongside us since the beginning have supported our journey. And the opening of this brewery means we can remain here for decades. On behalf of our family and the Bundaberg brew drink board, I want to thank everybody again who have made this moment possible. For those who have helped us in our foundation years, to the amazing team that have transformed this superb brewery from a vision into a reality. We are so proud of where we come from and look forward to continuing to treat the world to Bundaberg for generations to come. Thank you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Cliff, and thank you for giving me the honour of being with you today at this amazing opening of an extraordinary business run by an exceptional family. And it’s wonderful to be joined here by so many parliamentary colleagues as well. My Assistant Minister here, Anthony Chisholm, who does such a great job as Senator for Queensland, Keith Pitt the local federal member, and Tom the local state member, and of course we’ve got Cameron as well, the Queensland Treasurer here with us this morning. But a particular shout out to the family. This is an extraordinary business and it’s one that’s an iconic Australian Business. Importantly, it’s an Australian manufacturing business. I speak a lot about a future made in Australia and the need for us to be resilient. And one of the things we need to recognise is that manufacturing isn’t just metal widgets. Manufacturing is Australian products, is taking the base product, in this case ginger and other natural resources that are grown here in the region and converting them into a product that produces jobs and produces benefits for the region and for Australia. Whenever you go around the world you see Bundaberg ginger beer and other Bundaberg products, and that’s a great credit and brings this wonderful city of Bundaberg to life right around the globe. I was with President Biden just a few days ago, his go to drink is ginger beer. Now we need to convert him to Bundaberg ginger beer. I’ve spoken with him about this while I was there because it is such an amazing product. And the fact that it’s so iconic, people see that bottle, they see that wonderful tab at the top that you take off, and you know you think of Australia and it’s a wonderful thing. But it’s also important for this local economy. Some six hundred, more than six hundred jobs created directly on an ongoing basis. But the multiplier effect is many thousands of jobs on top of that, and of course eight hundred and fifty jobs created in construction as well while this magnificent facility was built. It brings people to Bundaberg because this city is known for this product. So it is also wonderful that as much as we appreciate foreign investment sometimes in Australia, isn’t it great that an Australian family-owned business stays here, building here, creating jobs here. That is precisely what we want. This is over $152 million of investment. That’s a sign of confidence in the Australian economy and in this local community going forward. $19 million contributed by the federal government in order to support manufacturing, an example of the government in a bipartisan way to make sure that this wonderful company can step up, as we’ve seen today with room for further expansion. So good for jobs, good for the local community, good for Australia. Congratulations for all who are involved in this and it’s been my great honour to be able to be here with all of you this morning.