Australia's eastern states should work together to ensure public transport vehicles are built domestically and overseas purchases kept to a minimum, the state opposition's transport spokesman Chris Minns has said during a visit to the Hunter.
Mr Minns, the member for Kogarah, toured the Downer railway workshops at Cardiff and Comsteel in Waratah on Thursday alongside Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery.
Mr Minns said his visit was prompted by the fact he had "been talking a lot about the need for Australian manufacturing, but hadn't seen where the work gets done".
"There's been a big debate about domestic manufacturing, particularly for transport rolling stock," he said.
"A lot of people work there [at Downer], it's highly skilled, elaborate manufacturing and there's capacity for more.
"They're hungry, and it's certainly not the case that they feel the water is running out of the place and it's their job to put the shutters up.
"In fact, it's an endless effort to fill the blank space on the future works program."
Mr Minns said the state government had put the region's capacity to manufacture rolling stock at risk by sending contracts offshore.
"The capital expenditure just becomes prohibitively expensive as soon as you start closing down these major factories because not only do you lose machinery and real estate, but skilled-up workers who can produce high-quality goods," he said.
"You probably increase by a factor of four or five as soon as you lose the capacity."
Mr Minns said Queensland, NSW and Victoria all had "large inventories" and made "large orders" and there should be "some level of coordination" to "specialise, help each other out and bulk-purchase and manufacturer at the same time".
