JOBS — TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
632. Ms D.G. D'ANNA to the Minister for Transport:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's strong record of providing more
job opportunities for Western Australians through its pipeline of
transport and infrastructure projects.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how the state government is using its record
transport infrastructure investment to deliver more opportunities for
Aboriginal businesses and workers?
(2) Can the
minister outline how these efforts are supporting local communities across Western
Australia?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
(1)–(2) I thank the member for Kimberley for that
question. Today I attended the first Meet the Buyer and Supplier Forum for Aboriginal businesses and road and rail
contractors. We have amalgamated all the infrastructure spend in the
transport portfolio and today we hosted a Meet the Buyer and Supplier Forum at
which Aboriginal businesses got to speak directly to the contractors delivering
our record asset investment program. Over 83 Aboriginal businesses were
represented today and every major contractor was there. It was an opportunity
for more Aboriginal businesses to directly talk to those who are delivering our
record infrastructure spend. There were over 400 attendees today—a
record number of attendees at these types of forums. It was great to hear some
of the stories. We now have, across the state, Aboriginal businesses
proactively working with contractors, employing Aboriginal people and
delivering a record amount of infrastructure
spend through Aboriginal businesses. We have set a target of over $700 million
for Aboriginal businesses over the next five years and 3.5 million work
hours completed by Aboriginal workers.
Member for Kimberley, we have been up
there a few times already and we have seen the number of local Aboriginal
people employed on our road contracts throughout the Kimberley. We want to
replicate that, and we are trying to replicate that throughout regional WA. It
is not just in the major contracts; it is also in road maintenance. For example, about five years ago in the Kimberley,
probably less than 10 per cent of the maintenance
crew were Aboriginal workers. We now have that at over 60 per cent. It is an
incredible result, in particular in
maintenance. This is what happened many, many years ago—decades ago—before
there was widespread contracting out.
The Main Roads local maintenance crew was very much dependent on Aboriginal workers. People from the country looked after the
roads in that area. That is something we are very much aspiring to now replicate. We are bringing back
what happened all those decades ago when the local Aboriginal people looked after the roads on country. This is
something we are very, very passionate about. I was very pleased; it was so
heartening to see over 80 Aboriginal businesses represented from all over
regional WA and metropolitan Perth. We see this as a huge opportunity to
continue the growth of Aboriginal employment.
The forum was hosted today by our
good friend the former Treasurer, Ben Wyatt. It was great to see the former Treasurer, who used to hate my
infrastructure spending, now absolutely celebrating my infrastructure
spending! After resisting it and combating it for all those years, he was
celebrating it, as I mentioned at the forum
today. It was a great turnout. It is very much a passion of the whole transport
team—Main Roads, the Public Transport Authority and Metronet.
Again, there is a lot more work to be done, particularly on maintenance. We
will be making further announcements that will see the direct employment of
more Aboriginal regional workers in WA.
Ms S.E. Winton interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Wanneroo, are you wanting to ask a question?