Labor’s Deputy Leader, Yasmin Catley MP, slammed the Premier for her comments yesterday that New South Wales and Australian manufacturing workers can’t build quality ferries, trains, buses and light rail and issued a demand for the Premier to apologise for her unforgivable public attack on local workers and businesses.
“Gladys Berejiklian is addicted to offshoring big government projects and screwing local workers and businesses out of a chance to show us what they can do,” Ms Catley said.
Under pressure for the woeful track record of botched transport projects being procured from overseas by her Government, the Premier said at a press conference on Wednesday, “Australia and New South Wales are not good at building trains, that’s why we have to purchase them”.
“This just shows how utterly ignorant and out of touch Gladys Berejiklian is when it comes to jobs and manufacturing in our state. She and her colleagues have spent the last nine years offshoring jobs and sending taxpayers’ money overseas and now she has the gall to blame our workers,” Ms Catley said.
The NSW Liberals have spent $2.7Bn on South Korean trains that don’t fit the tracks and tunnels, $1.5Bn on Indonesian ferries that don’t fit under bridges, as well as trams from Spain and France, and buses from Malaysia.
“In the middle of an economic crisis, Gladys Berejiklian’s comments are a kick in the guts to local workers. Instead of running down our local industries at press conferences, Gladys Berejiklian should be giving them the opportunity to build our new ferries and trains,” Ms Catley said.
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