Local jobs under spotlight as ship lift contract awarded
A decade after it was first flagged, work has begun at Darwin’s ship lift - but questions linger about local jobs.
Business
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The Darwin ship lift will be operating by 2026 ahead of a 2027 expected project completion, if the latest NT government forecasts are correct.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler announced on Tuesday Florida-based Pearlson Ship Lift Corporation had been awarded a $48m contract to supply the ship lift operating system, steel trestles and design and supply an integrated self-propelled modular transporter system.
Civil works on the project began in late April.
Ms Lawler said the land deal with the 22ha site’s former owner Paspaley had been finalised but declined to say how much government paid, citing commercial confidentiality.
It was also revealed local participation and engagement on the project is expected to be less than 20 per cent, with much of the project’s manufacturing being undertaken by overseas or interstate businesses and workers.
“I have trust in the procurement process that Pearlson’s will do that work. They’ll make sure that there are subcontractors that are Territorians,” Ms Lawler said.
“We’re tracking around 16 per cent already on this project around local content. It’s much easier to get locals that’s for sure and we know we have great local civil contractors that can provide the work here already.”
So far $17.8m in contracts have been let to Territory businesses including $16.9m to the Wilga Indigenous Corporation to supply 430,000 tonnes of rock.
NT Buy Local Industry advocate Denys Stedman on Tuesday morning sought a briefing with the government, but said he hoped the local content target was higher than 16 per cent.
“I’m disappointed to learn its only 16 per cent but after a briefing I would hope that figure will rise once the project enters construction.”
Chamber of Commerce NT chief executive Greg Ireland acknowledged some parts of the project would require external work but said there were non-specialist components that could be done by local workers.
He said of the three companies that tendered for the project - Pearlson, Syncrolift and Bardex - only Pearlson had failed to engage locally with the Chamber.
“During the entire process there’s been the three tenderers and the Chamber’s only had interactions with two and Pearlson wasn’t one of those, so we don’t have the understanding of what they’ll put to local markets,” Mr Ireland said.
First flagged nine years ago by the previous CLP government, Ms Lawler identified a number of reasons for the project’s delay including main contractor Clough entering administration, Covid-19 and unspecified design delays.
She said the ship lift’s pricing structure would be set by the NT Utilities Commission and said she believed the $515m investment - which includes $215m from NT taxpayers and $300m from the North Australian Infrastructure Facility - would return a profit to taxpayers.
“We’ve had ongoing conversations with Defence around use of the ship lift and there is a Defence person embedded in the team working on the ship lift so we have a strong commitment from Defence.
“Obviously it will also be available for the fishing industry, the pealing industry, for tourism, for a range of vessels in the Top End.
“We already have facilities in Darwin on a smaller scale around ship maintenance and the maintenance of vessels and this will provide a stream available to major industries in Darwin, but also that’s a growing market that will increase in Defence in the territory. discussions happening now, commitment around that.
“We think it will be a money maker. There is a strong demand in the north of Australia for vessels, patrol boats, defence vessels but also for our fishing fleet. We see it as an industry that's going to grow across Australia and grow worldwide. Yes, we want it to be a profitable business in the Northern Territory.”
Opposition Leader, Lia Finocchiaro said Labor could not be trusted to deliver the project.
“Labor is all talk, no action - this is the 40th Labor press release on the ship lift and not even one sod has been turned," Ms Finocciaro said.
“This is just more incompetence from a Labor government who cannot deliver. It has taken Eva Lawler eight years as Infrastructure Minister and now Chief Minister to finally get to the stage of just announcing the preferred builder of the ship lift.
“This project started off at a cost of $100m and now it’s blown out to over $515m.”
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