METRONET —
RAILCARS
735. Ms L. METTAM to the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's announcement
yesterday to send the contract for the Morley–Ellenbrook rail line to a
British company. Can the Premier confirm
that his government awarded the railcar construction contract to a French
company, which excluded local
WA seat manufacturing company Beurteaux, despite it previously building tens of
thousands of WA railcars?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
The member is incorrect in
everything she says.
Ms R. Saffioti: She should
ask me!
Mr M. McGOWAN: She should ask the Minister for
Transport, but I do want to comment more broadly on these matters. She seems to be angry. I noted the tweet
that was put out by the Liberal Party about the fact that Alstom won
this contract. Just so the member understands, there is no Australian or Western
Australian railcar manufacturer. There are none. We have to get an overseas
company to come and build them here if we are going to have them built here;
that is the way it works. The Liberal Party does not seem to understand how
business works anymore, but that is how it
works. We have attracted an investor to come and build them here. It is
actually embarrassing that the member does not even understand that;
there is no Australian manufacturer that can do the work. There were two
competitors at the end, one Canadian and one French, because they are the
railcar builders. When railcars are built in Melbourne and Queensland, it is
the same situation: an overseas company comes and does the work.
We have secured over 50 per cent
local content on these railcars. When the railcars were being built under the
last government, it was two per cent local content. How do we know that? It is
because we asked the last government a question on notice and it answered and
advised us that it was two per cent local content. Why does the member not ask
a question? Why does she not do a press conference? Our contract has secured
railcar manufacturing in Western Australia for the first time in 35 years or
so. It will be done here with a high-quality company that knows how to do it.
The New South Wales government is of the view that it cannot be done in New
South Wales, so it got it done in India. The gold-standard state got it done in
India, and the railcars would not fit through the tunnel in Sydney. The
gold-standard state; I hear that is its model. Remember Ian Britza? He had that
plan as well. Indian railcar manufacturer—the railcars could not fit
through the tunnels. We are getting them manufactured here in Western Australia.
There will be all sorts of local jobs. The facility is being built at Midland
as we speak. The Liberal Party seems to hate it. Members might note that the
Leader of the Opposition described it as a past industry that should not happen
in Western Australia.