Post by ferryfast admin on Sept 22, 2007 14:40:56 GMT -5
Austal's John Rothwell
Labour shortages hit WA shipbuilding
Perth Now
www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22463010-951,00.html
September 22, 2007 05:00pm
BIG business is abandoning Western Australia as the state's shortage of skilled labour continues to worsen.
WA-based shipbuilder Austal said that it would use its newly acquired Margate shipyard near Hobart to supply lucrative military contracts in preference to its WA shipyard in Henderson because of the shortage of skilled labour here.
Austal chairman John Rothwell said Tasmania was attractive because it was free of the competition for labour that had plagued the shipbuilder's WA operations since the mining and construction boom.
Mr Rothwell said Austal would probably not have even considered buying the Margate operation if it had not been for the WA labour shortage.
"We've been battling the labour shortage in WA for some time,'' he said.
"We've got some 270 people on 457 guest labour visas at Henderson now, but it's very, very difficult to just hang on to our people in WA.
"We've always done a lot of training. We have 280 apprentices right now, but as soon as the resources sector is in need of people they'll pay them whatever they need to get their projects going.
"Most definitely, our ability to attract a workforce in Tasmania is much better than it is in WA.''
Mr Rothwell said industry was largely to blame for the labour shortage.
"I don't really blame government for the situation,'' he said.
"Frankly I am very critical of industry, which frequently fails to see a long-term future in training people. But then when there's a shortage they all scream at the government and say it's not doing enough.''
Mr Rothwell predicted the shortage would worsen.
"You'd need to have a crystal ball to work out when the mining boom is going to finish, but certainly there are a number of big projects still being flagged at the moment, and not only in WA,'' he said.
"The uranium industry in South Australia is talking about needing some 15,000 people in the construction phase there in the next few years.
"I think industry needs to be preparing itself for a worse time ahead.''
The 56m border patrol boat HMAS Launceston, which Austal built in Tasmania and officially commissioned this week, was the 12th under its soon-to-be-completed contract for the Australian Defence Force.
Mr Rothwell said the international market for similar lightweight military vessels was huge.
"They are aluminium, which is quite uncommon for warships, and the opportunities for vessels of that kind worldwide, particularly in the non-ship building nations such as the Middle East are very real,'' he said.
Austal is also building two 127m warships at its yards in Alabama in the US.