PM chooses tank plant visit over roads

The prime minister has sung the praises of a small Sydney business that is about to start exporting high-tech chemical storage tanks to Germany.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Source: AAP

Big white chemical tanks have trumped brand new roads in Malcolm Turnbull's election campaign agenda in his latest visit to outer Sydney.

Newspaper headlines shouted about a $50 million coalition government investment to fix up a notorious bit of road at Appin to Sydney's south, improving safety and access and helping reduce house prices.

So did a media release from the prime minister's office - with the expectation Mr Turnbull would be standing alongside a bit of road for his major media appearance for the day.

But it was not to be. Instead, Mr Turnbull visited a small business which makes carbon fibre tanks for storage of corrosive chemicals and which is about to start exporting to Germany.

Was this apparent change of plan in any way connected to Labor leader Bill Shorten making a near-identical announcement about the same bit of road the previous day, the prime minister was asked.

"It's very important infrastructure and it is going to unlock 35,000 new homes," was all he had to say to reporters.

Announcement gazumping has become something of a feature of this campaign.

In Darwin, Mr Turnbull was supposed to announce $15 million for a new PET scanner, which was actually announced by CLP MP Natasha Griggs the day before, in order to get the jump on a similar announcement by Labor.

Omni Tanker, the business Mr Turnbull visited at Smeaton Grange on Thursday, ticked all the prime ministerial boxes for jobs and growth.

It's a family-owned firm which makes clever stuff - carbon fibre composite tanks for transport of corrosive chemicals - and which plans to double its 28-strong workforce as it begins to export.

Mr Turnbull said there were no fussier buyers than the Germans and Omni had cracked that market.

"If you can export advanced patented Australian material science to Germany, you can export it everywhere in the world," he said.

Even the best organised campaign events don't go completely to plan.

Mr Turnbull was briefly interrupted by a pair of unionists yelling from outside the front gate and waving a hastily-prepared sign saying "Port Kembla steel works 66km".

They declared thousands of real workers were hanging there by a thread and the prime minister should visit them.

Omni chief executive Daniel Rodgers said their first export deal was into a market worth around $15 million to $30 million.

"We are a small company with a high technology niche," he said.


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Source: AAP



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