The NSW government plans to invest billions in infrastructure projects over the next few years, but local workers and businesses won't be the ones benefiting from this spending.
This is because there is no commitment from the Berejiklian government to enforce local content requirements for government infrastructure projects.
Requirements to use local workers and locally made products would put money back into our communities and create jobs. We could expand our manufacturing sector and secure strong, local supply chains, but we need a commitment from the government to make it happen.
The state government can influence the quantity and quality of jobs in NSW in two key ways.
The first is through its role as a direct employer of workers in the public service, and the second through its procurement policies when it comes to public spending on infrastructure and services.
Both channels give the government the ability to shape conditions and outcomes for NSW workers and communities. But the Berejiklian government has abandoned working people on both fronts.
This government would have us believe that its hands are tied by Australia's free trade agreements; that it can't enact strong local content policies around procurement because the government can only buy goods and services at cut-price costs from overseas. But this just isn't true.
Other states have rejected this approach of putting the "free market" first. They have developed a procurement framework that considers the quality of the finished product and the long-term benefits of training and employing local workers to produce things using local content.
In Victoria, for example - bound by the same trade law obligations as NSW - the industry minister can authorise minimum local content requirements of 90 per cent for a construction project and 80 per cent for a services or maintenance project.
Creating good local jobs through government procurement is a policy choice - it's as simple as that.
Every time they've had the opportunity to support local jobs and build things here, this government has chosen the overseas option.
In the past decade, the NSW government has bought ferries from China and Indonesia, buses from Malaysia, trains from South Korea, China and India, and light rail vehicles from France and Spain.
They also used imported steel for the construction of the International Convention Centre in Sydney and the Sydney Metro.
Lower costs are touted as the justification for choosing overseas contractors, but all these purchases have come with various quality and safety issues that taxpayers have been paying a whole lot of money to fix.
The Broadmeadow-made Tangara T Sets have run for more than 30 years without issue.
We've had trains that don't fit the tracks and ferries that can't be operated at night (they were also filled with asbestos.)
Meanwhile, the Broadmeadow-made Tangara T Sets have run for more than 30 years without issue.
When we build infrastructure using local content, we're creating a quality product along with secure jobs and training opportunities for the next generation of apprentices.
The impact of secure, union jobs go beyond an individual worker or family. It extends to the whole community, which benefits when a worker spends their paycheck at local businesses or on Australian-made products.
The government attempts to justify its constant offshoring by saying our workforce doesn't have the skills needed to build critical infrastructure here.
But they've done nothing to boost workers' skills.
Instead, they've gutted our TAFE system, with the latest announcement being that 678 jobs are set to be cut.
These are in addition to the thousands of TAFE jobs that have been lost over the years through various restructures.
When we lose TAFE staff and campuses are sold off, how do we expect our kids to skill up or for older workers to retrain?
Young apprentices may decide not to pursue manufacturing trades when they look at the lack of support for the industry and worry that future job opportunities might not exist when they finish their training.
What NSW needs is procurement, training, and public spending policies that direct state spending towards local jobs and skills.
A well-funded TAFE system and a focus on local procurement will help expand our economy and ensure we continue to have the ability to build things here.
This is the best way the government can support local workers, young people, and communities in the Hunter and across the state.
It's time for the Berejiklian government to invest in NSW workers and NSW jobs.
