Sydney’s new buses roll off ship from China, despite promises to build in NSW

Transport Minister John Graham has defended the purchase of bus “shells” manufactured in China for NSW’s new locally-built fleet, as revealed in The Saturday Telegraph, saying it was always part of the government’s plan.

These are Sydney’s new buses that Premier Chris Minns pledged would be built in NSW – but have rolled out of a Beijing factory instead.

Extraordinary photographs shared from the headquarters of Chinese company Foton have revealed the electric buses – some bedazzled with ribbons like new cars from a dealership – have been built in China and shipped to the NSW South Coast where they will simply have some internals like Opal card readers and seats fitted.

Just four months ago a thundering statement released by Mr Minns and senior ministers lauded plans to build 126 of the buses at a new Nowra facility, with the Premier saying then that “the off-shoring of public transport by the former government was a complete disaster”.

Yet pictures posted online by vehicle-construction giant Foton of the shiny new stock in Beijing have triggered fury from the workers’ union, which blasted the Minns government’s promises to revitalise domestic manufacturing as “lies”.

Foton proudly shows off the shiny new buses. Picture: Facebook

On Saturday morning, NSW Transport Minister John Graham denied the government had misled the public about where the buses would be constructed.

He said the government had always planned to have the “shells” of its new electric bus fleet built in China, despite the Premier promising they would be made on home soil.

Fronting the media on Saturday morning at Central Station, Mr Graham denied the government had misled the public about where the buses would be constructed.

Fifteen of the 126 buses have arrived on the NSW South Coast almost completely built.

Mr Graham said the rest of the fleet would be delivered in the same state — but did provide a timeline for when manufacturing would shift home.

“It’s consistent with what the plan always was, which is the shells are coming in from overseas and the internal fittings, the seats, the CCTV, the fire safety, the wiring, the telematics, things like the open hardware (will be done in NSW),” he said.

“Skilled workers will be fitting out those buses as a start and each time we’ll be increasing the amount of manufacturing (in NSW).

“That’s the way to build back from where we were … I want to be really clear, if the Premier hadn’t staked out the government’s position here, nothing would change.

“We’d continue to go backwards. It would continue to be champagne and party poppers as we bought these things from overseas.”

Mr Graham could not answer a question about where the buses were built in China.

“I’m happy for you to ask (Sydney Trains chief executive officer) Matt Longland or the team (for the location),” he replied.

The ‘delivery ceremony’ held at Foton’s facility in China. Picture: Facebook

On Friday, Mr Minns also defended the foreign-built stock, with his spokeswoman saying local components were “only going to scale up from here”.

Images show a “delivery ceremony” being held for 15 Sydney-bound buses at Foton’s Beijing headquarters, with the vehicles interiors’ appearing largely complete except for missing seats.

Another video shows the buses being driven onto a cargo ship before they were transported to Port Kembla, where they arrived this week.

The Facebook posts by Foton referencing the Sydney-bound buses appeared to be deleted shortly after enquiries from The Saturday Telegraph.

The images emerged just four months after Mr Minns and senior ministers issued a statement confirming a contract with Foton to deliver 126 electric buses “that will be built in Nowra and service bus routes across Greater Sydney”.

Images posted by Foton of the interior of the buses, before they were delivered to Australia. Picture: Facebook

“The offshoring of public transport by the former government was a complete disaster, which is why we’re building these buses here in NSW – creating local jobs and public transport that works,” Mr Minns said at the time.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union’s NSW secretary, Bradley Pidgeon, said the overseas construction “is against the very Labor platform” the Premier had campaigned on.

“We’re really sick of the lies that hide the truth – we’ve got quotes from the NSW government to deliver 126 buses built in Nowra – what we see is that Nowra must have drastically changed,” he said, referring to the foreign backdrop surrounding the buses in the pictures.

“From what we can see, there’s a handful of bolts to be installed to put seats in – this is not domestic manufacturing.”

Premier Chris Minns. Picture: John Appleyard

The first set of near-complete buses goes beyond the “flat-pack” collection of components it was understood would be bolted together in Australia, with the NSW Opposition lashing the near-finished rolling stock as a broken promise.

“Right now, the only thing locally manufactured under this government is pathetic public transport reliability and a new set of excuses,” Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said.

“The Premier promised these buses would be built in Nowra, yet they’ve been built in China.

“It really makes you wonder how you can trust anything he has to say.”

On January 30 this year, Mr Minns – alongside then-transport Minister Jo Haylen and domestic manufacturing Minister Courtney Houssos – said new buses would be constructed at a “state-of-the-art facility” in Nowra which would create 100 local jobs.

Yet that site remains undeveloped, with the buses to travel to a temporary site rented in Nowra, where work like installing seats, CCTV, and Opal card readers will take place.

A spokeswoman for the Premier said “we’re working to do better on local content”.

“The first 25 buses are heading to Nowra where locals will build in seats, CCTV, fire safety, wiring and installation of Opal readers and telematics,” she said.

“We want to see more locals building our transport fleets and it’s only going to scale up from here.”

The first batch of 15 buses at Foton’s headquarters in China. Picture: Facebook

Transport Minister John Graham defended the foreign-built buses, saying the first 15 – which are expected to be joined by another 10 next month – were rapidly built overseas to meet a shortfall in Sydney.

“This government is breaking from the last decade in which the Liberals bought new trains off the shelf overseas that created more headaches than jobs in trying to get them operating safely,” he said.

He said the amount of local content and work on buses would be scaled up to 50 per cent by 2027.

“We need more buses on the road right now in 2025 following a decade of severe under-investment by the previous government,” he said.

“The first 25 buses in the Foton Mobility Distribution (FMD) contract are arriving to help meet that immediate need, with work in Nowra going into finishing works, including the installation of seats, CCTV, fire safety, wiring and installation of Opal readers and vehicle tracking technology.”

He said the new facility in Nowra would scale up to employing 100 people “over time”, with 500 applications received for the first 15 jobs advertised for the site.

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