‘No welding or painting’ at NSW bus-building hub
Labor promised buses built in NSW, not an IKEA assembly line that bolts pieces together, say the NSW opposition.
NSW
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New planning documents reveal how little construction will be done at a new state of the art bus-building hub on the south coast, despite Premier Chris Minns’ pledge to bring vehicle manufacturing back to the state.
Planning documents for Foton’s specialist bus building hub at Nowra state “only basic assembly of the buses” will occur at the facility, with “no welding, cutting or painting being undertaken”.
“Parts from the supplier will arrive at the site fully painted and constructed,” a noise impact assessment for the new facility, which is yet to be approved, states.
The documents have triggered a new round of criticism of the NSW Government’s bus building program, after a contract was awarded to China-helmed Foton to supply 126 battery-powered electric buses bound for Sydney’s streets.
NSW shadow treasurer Damien Tudehope said the latest documents underscored the lack of work being done to fulfil Labor’s promises to build vehicles in the state.
“This is a bait and switch by the Labor Government,” he said.
“They promised buses built in NSW, not an Ikea assembly line that bolts pieces together. What we’ve got is a glorified packing shed and a policy to slap an ‘Australian made’ sticker on the output.”
A NSW Government spokesman said the lack of noise from welding was because “state of the art” carbon fibre panels would be used.
“Under the Liberals the noise from bus manufacturing came from overseas factories,” he said, reaffirming the government’s goal to get to 50 per cent local bus components at the site within two years.
“Offshoring bus manufacturing jobs is the default position of the Liberal Party and their ongoing criticism of the Nowra facility shows they would do it again in a heartbeat.
“The new Foton facility in Nowra will be a hive of activity, employing 100 people and assembling state of the art buses with carbon fibre panels that won’t require welding. Any painting or additional welding will be carried out by local contractors.”
The Telegraph previously revealed the first batch of 15 buses under the 126-bus contract were almost completely built in China before being rolled onto a ship for transport to Australia.
Images posted on Foton’s social media show vehicles adorned with bright red ribbons ahead of their delivery to Australia, when they were then sent to Foton’s temporary facility at Nowra, where minor work – such as fitting seats and CCTV – was undertaken.
That came after a government press release released in January heralded the Foton contract as a boon for local manufacturing, with Mr Minns saying at the time “the offshoring of public transport by the former government was a complete disaster, which is why we’re building these buses here in NSW”.
The NSW Government has maintained the amount of local manufacturing undertaken at Foton’s bus-building facility will ramp up, with more local work done on vehicles as time goes on.
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Originally published as ‘No welding or painting’ at NSW bus-building hub
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