Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle has secured the support of delegates to the NSW Labor Conference for her campaign to commit a future Labor Government to building new trains in New South Wales.
A motion to amend the Labor Party’s platform was put to a vote by Ms Doyle and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, where it received the support of delegates to the conference, held at Sydney Town Hall on July 29 and 30.
The motion called for all future train replacement programs – including the remainder of the Intercity V-Set replacement program – to be built locally.
Ms Doyle has been waging a high-profile campaign against the NSW Liberal Government’s decision to issue a contract for the new intercity fleet to a company in South Korea. The new trains are being built to a design which is currently incompatible with tracks, tunnels and platforms on the Blue Mountains line west of Springwood.
Addressing the conference, Ms Doyle said: “In the Labor Party, we know that New South Wales train manufacturing workers have the skills, the know-how and the experience to produce high quality trains that are fit-for-purpose, which fit the tracks, and which provide value-for-money for NSW taxpayers.
“We have learned from the disastrous mistakes of the NSW Liberal Government and we call upon a future Labor government to ensure the long-term future of local rail manufacturing in NSW.”
Ms Doyle also spoke in support of a new Labor Party commitment to enshrine 10 days domestic violence leave in the national employment standards and relevant state legislation.
"We can't rely on good employers to provide domestic violence leave and care for their workers who are confronted with an unsafe situation," Ms Doyle said.
"We can't and we shouldn't rely on benevolence."
The Domestic Violence Leave motion, brought to the conference by the Australian Services Union – which represents community services sector workers – was adopted as Labor policy with unanimous support from all delegates.