Future Made in Australia funding goes to US firm as locals do it tough
Jon Seeley watched on as Anthony Albanese hailed a $17m investment for a US-owned pet food manufacturing company, just a stone’s throw from his own factory which is set to close because of onerous IR reforms.
Manufacturer Jon Seeley has lashed out at Anthony Albanese for providing $17m to a US-owned pet food company under the Future Made in Australia banner, saying his business, just a stone’s throw away, is not receiving taxpayer support while being hit by draconian industrial relations policies.
Mr Seeley watched on as the Prime Minister hailed the investment in Wodonga, just a short drive from his factory in Albury, which is set to cease operations because of the government’s workplace rules.
“I could imagine some of our local Wodonga employees – who are facing the fact that their longstanding job is coming to an end because of federal government policy – they may find it a bit hard to swallow,” Mr Seeley said.
Seeley International manufactures heaters and air coolers. It has been forced to consolidate operations to one plant instead of operating two because of “prohibitively expensive” rules regarding casual workers, he said.
“The factory in Albury has a winter peak because it makes, primarily, heating products. And the factory in Adelaide has a summer peak. So altogether we employ around 460 people.
“We love to have as many employees as we can permanently because we keep their skill sets and so on, and a lot of people work with us for many years. But we also need the flexibility because of the seasonal peaks to have a surge workforce that involves casual employees.
“But because of the new IR laws the federal government’s brought in, it makes casual employment ambiguous, uncertain, risky, and prohibitively expensive. So our conclusion was we need to consolidate our two operations into one location, so that we can minimise any casual employment.”
Mr Seeley also blamed new gas rules in Victoria as a factor behind the decision. He said the company had resisted combining its two factories for over 30 years.
“We’ve said that we actually want to continue to support the local community in Albury and our long-term staff there,” he said. “And we’ve managed to work around that inefficiency.”
A government spokeswoman said that while it was “disappointing” that a business had decided to shut a plant, she said the industrial relations changes still meant businesses could hire casual staff “to meet their needs the same way they always have”.
“Our changes mean casual employees can seek permanent employment after six months, or 12 months for small business employees, if they no longer believe they meet the definition of a casual employee,” she said.
“An employer can refuse to accept this in certain circumstances, including where there are fair and reasonable operational grounds to do so.
“Businesses can still hire casuals to meet their needs in the same way they always have.”
Mr Albanese last Tuesday visited the Mars Petcare facility in Wodonga, showcasing the “country’s first commercial concentrated solar thermal heat plant” backed by $17m in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
“Creating jobs, investing in our regions and reducing emissions – this is a perfect example of a Future Made in Australia,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Seeley said that while he did not want to “begrudge another manufacturing company getting some support … that’s a big foreign-owned multinational, and we’re an Australian-owned, family-owned company”.
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