The head of the Business Council of Australia says the federal government's $15 billion reconstruction fund should set up a nationally significant advanced manufacturing precinct in Newcastle.
Jennifer Westacott told a business gathering in Newcastle on Tuesday that the Hunter had the skilled workforce and manufacturing background to justify a substantial investment from Labor's planned catalyst fund.
"Newcastle should be a nationally significant precinct, the National Reconstruction Fund should invest heavily into it, and we should be setting up a kind of satellite advanced manufacturing research facility and starting to bring those big companies around the world into Newcastle," she said.
Ms Westacott cited the example of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in the former English mining city of Sheffield, which is part of Britain's High Value Manufacturing Catapult network.
"They haven't got just a couple of little buildings; they've got a giant centre. They've got Boeing, they've got Rolls-Royce, they've got Jaguar Land Rover," she said.
"They've got these huge companies that are co-investing, employing thousands of people.
"They discovered that as part of the mining industry they had this very specialised tooling capability that Beoing, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover wanted.
"Those [manufacturing centres] are all over the UK, they're all over Germany, and we've got to get that kind of model."
A panel comprising Ms Westacott, Port of Newcastle chief Craig Carmody, Business Hunter boss Bob Hawes and the Asia-Pacific head of engineering services firm WSP, Guy Templeton, discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the Hunter as Australia shifted away from fossil fuels.
Mr Carmody agreed Newcastle should have an advanced manufacturing centre.
"If we don't have that kind of precinct, then, quite honestly, what are we doing?" he said.
"The Reconstruction Fund, please god, instead of 500 small little projects, can we actually pick 20 that are actually big enough to justify using taxpayers' money and get something for it."
Ms Westcott said many workers in the mining industry could adapt their skills with "micro credentials" to enter new industries but called on the government to establish a "specialist" Hunter transition authority to coordinate private investment, research and training.
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