COMMENT: IT is significant whenever the deputy prime minister of Australia comes to the region but it is particularly important in the current climate of major job losses.
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Warren Truss, the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, met the region’s state MPs and several local government representatives in Bathurst yesterday and while addressing job losses was on the agenda, any immediate support was not.
Mr Truss’s visit followed member for Calare John Cobb’s call on January 21 for both federal and state governments to back his plan for the construction of a new 90,000 megalitre dam in the central west at Needles Gap near Canowindra.
The dam proposal has enormous merit and if it does win federal funding for an environmental assessment and is eventually funded and built could well deliver the kick-start for regional industry and confidence that Mr Cobb predicts.
However, there is no escaping the fact that to date Canberra has shown no inclination to intercede with funding for retraining or job creation for over 1100 workers who will lose their jobs in the next two to three years.
Talk of a large, new dam that would provide water for irrigation, mining development and domestic use should be welcomed but neither the federal or state governments should expect affected workers, their families and local communities to be satisfied with that alone.
While the months, and perhaps years, are ticking by, the region’s workforce needs more immediate help.
Mr Truss said yesterday automotive workers facing redundancy were not getting more generous or immediate support than employees of Electrolux, Simplot or Downer EDI. But while auto workers heard news of a $100 million support package within days of Holden’s announcement, in the Central Tablelands the silence has been deafening.
The only announcement of assistance in Orange so far has been that TAFE is paying out of its existing budget for training a small proportion of Electrolux workers who have so far asked it for assistance.