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Visit the Vic government to create 1100 local jobs with new $2 billion train deal
The Victorian Government has announced that a new $2 billion train deal to build 65 new high-capacity trains in Melbourne’s west will create 1100 local jobs.
It’s clear that this project has been designed with the local community in mind and with the aim to generate long-term positive impacts for communities and the Victorian economy.
The plan includes a 60 per cent local content requirement and trains will be assembled in Newport at Downer Rail. The public-private partnership will last for 35 years and includes maintenance, with a new depot to be built, creating 100 jobs. There is also a requirement for 15 per cent of the workplace to be apprentices and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
It’s a plan that sits in stark contrast with the NSW Government’s recent decision to send the manufacture of five hundred new NIF carriages in South Korea at the expense of regional NSW.
By selling off a big infrastructure project to the lowest bidder without any broad analysis of the impact of the decision on the community, the NSW Government has missed an opportunity for areas like the Illawarra and the Hunter to benefit from jobs, training and other flow on effects.