The NSW Government is opening a program to support domestic manufacturing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The program includes a $5 million grants scheme to establish a reliable, domestic supply of PPE products that have been critical in the response to COVID-19 including masks, gowns, disinfectant, hand wash and soap or their components.
The grant scheme seeks to deliver assistance to manufacturers or businesses that are:
- currently manufacture and can increase production or
- looking to ‘retool’ and pivot their existing manufacturing lines to produce specified PPE products. This can also include the materials used to make those specified PPE products.
The program intends to:
- stimulate the manufacturing sector
- to reinvigorate the state’s sovereign capability in the production of PPE products
support job creation and retention across NSW
The key objective for the program is to enable the supply of PPE for industry, private health care, NGOs, government and the community more broadly. This will allow the industry to become COVID-safe without relying on disrupted and volatile international source markets.