Member for Warren-Blackwood, Terry Redman fully supports the Shire of Bridgetown in pushing for local people to take up jobs at the expanded Talison Lithium mine in Greenbushes.
“The local government has been working with Talison for some time in planning this expansion and creating job opportunities for people in Greenbushes, Bridgetown and surrounding towns,” Mr Redman said.
“As I stated in Parliament, it goes against all regional development principles for the Labor Government to put pressure on Talison to employ people from a more distant town and to commercially underwrite a bus service from Collie so residents can ‘drive in – drive out’ to work at the Greenbushes site.”
Mr Redman said he understood the need to create employment opportunities in Collie, but said taking jobs from other towns is not in the best interests of the region as a whole, and is just robbing one community to benefit another.
“This is not about Collie, this is about local jobs for local people in a town 100 kilometres away,” Mr Redman said.
“I firmly believe it is appropriate for a Government to invest in a community and provide a range of incentives when industry is undergoing substantial change – such as is the case in Collie.
“It is disappointing the Government did not extend this support to a local business when it awarded a Malaga company the tender to build fire trucks. The fact this company will relocate 30% of their work to Collie does nothing to strengthen a regional business,” Mr Redman said.
“I commend Talison Lithium on its Greenbushes expansion project and plans to increase their workforce by approximately 500 people, and encourage them to continue their plan to employ workers from Greenbushes and nearby towns.”
