The Illawarra is ideally suited to make its own renewable energy infrastructure, rather than rely on imports, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
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The Prime Minister was visiting the University of Wollongong's SMART Infrastructure Facility - which he opened as Infrastructure Minister back in 2011 - on the back of the budget commitment of a $10 million Energy Futures Skills Centre to be built at the university.
Mr Albanese said the Illawarra - and the country - needed to get back to making things rather than looking to other countries.
"On renewables, this area has enormous capacity," Mr Albanese said.
"I have seen things about assembling products here at the port, I've got an idea - how about we make them here? It's not that hard - we have everything that goes into a solar panel, we have everything that goes into a wind turbine.
"We've got BlueScope, we've got enormous opportunities here. I want to see things made here. I want to see advanced manufacturing made here.
"Then I want to see us exporting products. What we need to do is to have a vision of making things here, creating jobs here, value-adding here to our resources - that's what I want to see."
It was Mr Albanese's first visit to the Illawarra since becoming Prime Minister in May 2022.
It was also the first visit to the region by a Prime Minister since Scott Morrison donned a hard hat and hi-vis to check out BlueScope in 2020.
Mr Albanese said the combination of the University of Wollongong, TAFE and a strong manufacturing history meant the Illawarra "has an incredibly bright future".
On the future of Port Kembla as a possible home for nuclear subs, Mr Albanese would not be drawn on offering a timeline for when a decision would be made.
"We make decisions on defence when they've been properly examined and gone through a proper process through our national security committee," he said.
"We've received the Defence strategic review and will report on that and have a process of consultation on that."
Mr Albanese was also visiting Kiama on Friday, where he would meet up with NSW Labor leader Chris Minns. He refuted claims he was "meddling" in the state election.
"I'm not meddling - I'm campaigning explicitly," he said. "I'm campaigning for Chris Minns to be the Premier of NSW.
"That's what I was doing last night when I was with Chris Minns, that's what I'll be doing on a number of occasions in the lead-up to the election.
"I encourage Dominic Perrottet to have Peter Dutton come in NSW to campaign next to him."
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
