It’s time for the Tasmanian Liberals to Put Tasmanian Workers First

Tasmanian Building Unions will on Friday 14th August 2015 be holding a protest rally at Parliament House to call upon the Tasmanian Government to introduce laws that will mandate minimum local labour and product content on major Government projects.

Noel Washington from the CFMEU stated “We’ve seen materials on Parliament Square Project brought in from overseas and local suppliers lose out. Recently the CFMEU was advised a plastering contract will be let to a New South Wales company rather than locals. Tasmania has quality suppliers and highly-qualified trades’ people looking for work, yet they’re being bypassed on this State Government project”.

The Union is also concerned that the proposed China Free Trade Agreement will also impact Tasmanian builders and suppliers if the Government does not move to ensure a reasonable level of local content.
We have also seen imported materials not complying with Australian Standards causing major safety incidents.

“We just can’t afford to put the community at risk by allowing products to be used on major Tassie projects that don’t meet Australian standards. You just need to look at the cladding debacle on some of the residential high-rise towers on the mainland. There are literally hundreds of buildings that have cladding that is a massive fire risk; all of it imported from China without proper oversight.” Mr Washington said.

The CFMEU has written to Premier Hodgman expressing the concerns of the Tasmanian union movement and seeking a commitment to local consistent with other State and Territory Government’s procurement policies.

Noel Washington states that “the upcoming Royal Hobart Hospital project should be required to give local companies preference and that the Government should ensure a fair go for local companies and workers. If the Northern Territory Government can mandate a 90% local content on their Palmerston Hospital project then it’s not unreasonable that the Tasmanian Government require a reasonable level of local content.”

Download:

CFMEUTAS_37532_Rally_flyer_LR.pdf

NT_Tenders.pdf
Noel Washington