Incendiary comments by the NSW Premier about the capacity of NSW to manufacture passenger transport vehicles have ignited a wider debate about the future of manufacturing in our state.
A series of transport infrastructure bungles has occurred in recent years with the latest embarrassment being passengers on the top deck of new Parramatta bound ferries having to be cleared because they could not safely fit under existing bridges. The privatised Sydney operator had ordered off-the-shelf ferries from Indonesia. The resulting public furore about the incompetence of the state government in procuring transport infrastructure was made worse by comments from the Premier that NSW “was not good at building trains”.
These comments sparked a community debate about local jobs particularly in job-starved regional areas, the future of apprenticeships for young people, cost structures in Australia and overseas and the subsidies, research, and investment and depreciation allowances enjoyed by many overseas manufacturers because of active support from their governments.
NSW manufacturing workers pointed to the lack of forward planning, ad hoc procurement policies and the high cost of electricity prices associated with privatisation in NSW.
In contrast to NSW, the Victorian Government in 2015 established a 10-year rolling stock strategy for an industry which employs 10,000 Victorian workers. This enables a planned and consistent supply of both trains and trams underpinned by a commitment that a minimum of 50 per cent of local content in all rolling stock orders. Importantly the Victorian Government has designated the transport technology sector as one of six priority sectors.
The ferry fiasco is one of a number of transport infrastructure bungles that has plagued NSW in recent years. They have included:
- Light rail rolling stock manufactured in Spain which do not allow interoperability between systems.
- The next generation of inter-regional trains built in South Korea which could not operate on the Blue mountains line without the spending of tens of millions of dollars on widening tunnels, altering platforms and relocating signalling infrastructure.
The widespread adverse community reaction to the Premier’s ill-considered comments has seen the NSW Government in recent days attempt to walk back their views by saying they are ready to work with other states to develop a plan to foster local manufacturing. The peak rail industry body said “the NSW government procurement process had helped erode local manufacturing and called for urgent action to rebuild the sector while global supply chains were tested amid the pandemic”.
Deeds not words are what are urgently required from the NSW Government.
Roger Jowett
(Letter received, September 6, 2020)
