Opposition leader Chris Minns says Hunter companies will be "extremely competitive" when it comes to building the state's new train fleet if Labor wins government next month.
Mr Minns and shadow transport minister Jo Haylen toured the Downer rail maintenance workshop at Cardiff on Monday after announcing Labor would spend $42.7 million on three new TAFE domestic manufacturing centres of excellence on existing TAFE campuses in the Hunter, Illawarra and western Sydney.
Labor has committed to replacing the Broadmeadow-built Tangara fleet with trains made in NSW, using at least 50 per cent local content and employing about 1000 people.
Mr Minns stopped short of guaranteeing the trains would be built in the Hunter during Monday's visit, which followed a trip to the Goninan rail factory at Broadmeadow in October.
"We anticipate that Hunter firms will be extremely competitive for those contracts," he said.
"I can't announce or award the tender now from Opposition, but there's no question the Hunter Valley in terms of its history, its expertise and its engineering skills will be one of the leading bidders for those contracts.
"It's been happening in this region for over a hundred years, and I firmly believe Australians are world leaders when it comes to engineering and manufacturing.
"They just need a government in this state which is going to back local and buy local."
Mr Minns' message was consistent with his recent attempts to establish a point of difference between Labor's agenda and what he termed the Coalition's "ideology" of privatising state assets and offshoring manufacturing contracts.
He said the government's six largest overseas transport infrastructure contracts had "blown out by 40 to 50 per cent, which means any of the proposed savings have been completely negated".
The Opposition's manufacturing plans would require an investment in vocational training "to ensure we've got the skilled labour in place on day one when those contracts come up".
"The problem is ... we don't have enough concentrated excellence when it comes to the teachers responsible for imparting that knowledge.
"We know ... something like 50 per cent of the teaching in TAFE in NSW has fled over the past 10 years, taking with them decades of experience."
He said NSW would also require trained workers for the booming renewable energy sector "because if we don't have the skills to roll out the projects we're going to be behind".
"One of the real concerns we've got is with vocational education.
"If you look at economies around the world that are thriving and adaptable and are looking to take opportunities, whether it's Germany or Singapore, they all heavily invest in vocational education."
Downer head of growth Adam Williams told reporters said the company would employ about 500 more workers if it won the fleet contract and suppliers would employ another 500.
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