The AMWU has offered to take mining billionaire Clive Palmer on a tour of local shipbuilding facilities after he said he was forced to build ships in China because shipbuilding didn't happen in Australia.
Mr Palmer announced recently he would build a Titanic replica as well as a number of ships for Queensland Nickel "because Australia lacks a maritime industry."
"Clive is wrong," said AMWU State Secretary Tim Ayres. "Australia has a highly skilled, innovative, thriving shipbuilding industry.
"Here in NSW, we build everything from ferries to air warfare destroyers. Take Newcastle, where Forgacs employs over 500 skilled tradespeople and more 50 apprentices in shipbuilding. There's also ship manufacturing based at Garden Island and in Balmain.
“In fact thousands of highly skilled AMWU members build ships in major shipbuilding facilities around Australia. Shipbuilding and maintenance is a ‘priority industry capability’ nominated by the Commonwealth Government to protect Australia’s defence interests.”
The AMWU has written to Clive Palmer, inviting him to take a tour of a facility see first hand Australia’s shipbuilding industry in action.
"We are asking Clive Palmer to come and take a look at our local shipbuilding operations. We'll give him a tour and show him the cutting edge skills and quality work we can offer,” Mr Ayres said.
"If Mr Palmer wants to build ships in China he should be honest about the reasons, it's not because Australia doesn't have a maritime industry."
No comments:
Post a Comment