Well thank you so much. I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. And of course, I'm proud to lead a government that will give Australians the chance to recognise Indigenous Australians in our Constitution in the last quarter of this year.
It's great to be here with Dr Mike Freelander, my parliamentary colleague, with the new Minister, Anoulack Chanthivong, congratulations on your appointment to the ministry, to local Mayor, George Grace, and importantly to Ross Doonan and to the entire team here at DECO. And I do want to acknowledge as well the workers here at DECO.
I visited this facility two years ago when I was the Opposition Leader, and I promised to come back if I was elected Prime Minister and open the new facility. And fortunately for me, that happened. And it's great to be here. I'm someone who has a record of all the commitments that I've made and I believe in fulfilling them.
Because when I was here, I was just taken aback by this family business, and how in accord it was with what the Government is trying to do for Australia. And I thought it was appropriate to do it at the end of our Budget week, our first major Budget that we've handed down, but our second Budget within one year of us being elected, because this typifies what we need to do for our country going forward.
I firmly believe in a future made here in Australia. We are dead last of advanced economies around the world for manufacturing. Last. It's not good enough.
I was here during the pandemic, as Ross said, and one of the things we learned from the pandemic is that if we're at the end of supply chains, we're vulnerable for global shocks that we don't see coming.
Now we've had and are still getting through a pandemic. But there could be other issues of trade. There could be other issues of conflict in our uncertain world. And that's why we need to be more self-reliant. That's why we simply can't afford to sit back and to say, 'Don't worry, we'll make things offshore somewhere else and that'll be okay'. It's not.
We need to bring manufacturing back here in Australia, and companies like DECO show that it certainly can be done. DECO began here as an small aluminium photo imaging business some 20 years ago. Now, it's a world-leading innovator across a whole range of building products and finishes, with more than 100 employees here in well-paid secure jobs.
Businesses don't just happen. They require leadership. And you've taken risks, Ross, and I admire that, and the the commitment that your family has done. But when businesses like this succeed, they succeed not just for their business. They succeed for their local community, here in the Campbeltown area, but they also succeed for our nation, for our national economy.
And that's why Tuesday night's Budget was about a stronger foundation for a better future. About how we further invest in skills and training, how we invest in infrastructure, and invest in our manufacturing capacity here in this country.
On Tuesday, we announced the $3.7 billion National Skills Agreement, to be negotiated in partnership with the states and territories. And that's in addition to 300,000 additional fee-free TAFE places. We want to give young Australians, or Australians who are retraining, the opportunity to get a good secure job by training in TAFE. We have had 180,000 fee-free places just this year. And when we invest in apprenticeships, that helps businesses like DECO here to meet their workforce needs going forward, as well as assisting people into the future.
We also have something that I'm sure that Ross will be looking at in the future, which is our National Reconstruction Fund, with specific funds within it for the sort of activity that takes place here, including in defence industry procurement. When we talk about our program of subs and our upgrade of our defence capability, we are talking about our national security, but we're also talking about industry policy, how we make things here and build that security as well. So that is really important, that's a $15 billion program.
On Tuesday night, we also announced a $392 million industry growth program to help small and medium businesses just like this one in the National Reconstruction Fund priority areas to commercialise their ideas and grow.
When I was listening to Ross go through the people who've assisted this business to grow, including the patent lawyers, what that really was a sign that this is a business that innovates. And one of the things about this country that I'm so proud of, is that there is no country in the world that actually does science and innovation better than this one. We are the country of the cochlear implant, of the black box, of Wi-Fi.
What we haven't been good at is commercialising those breakthroughs. There isn't a solar panel in the world that does not have intellectual property that was developed here, and largely at two institutions, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales. But we make hardly any solar panels here. That makes no sense. So we need to make sure that we back innovators, that we back companies like DECO to grow in the future. Because if we do that we can be more successful.
I'm also conscious about the work that this company has done in having the carbon light aluminium as well, and innovating to make sure that its footprint, in terms of emissions, is reduced. It's another example of how in today's competitive globalised world, companies will need to engage in that. It won't be an add-on, it will be a necessity for companies to be able to do that.
And I know from last time I was here about the renewable energy that helps to power this important facility right here. And on Tuesday night, we announced a hydrogen fund, something that Australia potentially has the world's best opportunity going forward. We have, as we can feel on this beautiful day here in Campbelltown, the best solar resources in the world bar none. How is it that Germany produces more solar power than here? I don't know if people have been to Germany, let me tell you, this day in May is better than any day you get there.
We need to use the natural advantages that we have. And the natural advantages that we have are the sky and our weather, our wind resources as well, our hydrogen, the fact that we have everything that goes into products that are going to be in demand: lithium, vanadium, copper, nickel, all of these products. The fact that we can produce green steel and green aluminium in the future through the use of hydrogen, the enormous natural advantages that we have.
The other advantage that we have, and our best advantage, is our people. We're a multicultural country that can engage in language and with people. We are located in the fastest growing region of the world, in human history, just to our north. Those growing markets for products present an enormous opportunity.
And we are a brave country, and an innovative country, which this business really personifies and this family personifies. Being prepared to take risks, to grow a business, to seize opportunities which are there.
So I'm very confident and optimistic about Australia's future. And it's a very conscious decision to come here in Budget week as the first event that I've done after we handed down our Budget. I wanted to send a signal that nothing is more important to my government than expanding manufacturing, than backing small and medium business, than growing jobs and opportunity for Australians going forward.
So I thank you very much, Ross, for the opportunity to be with you here today. I thank Mike for the incredible work that he does as the local member for this community, together with Anne Stanley. Campbelltown has extraordinary representatives in in Canberra, who I assure you are constantly knocking down my door with asks and requests, but they're never anything for themselves. They're for this community that they're proud to represent.
So congratulations to all involved. And it's a great honour for me to be here today.