John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on an issue which is important, certainly locally to Calare but I believe nationally. It is enormous and it sets a great example of what Australian trade and business can do. It also links in with our trade support loans.

Buslines Group is one of Australia's largest bus operating companies, with 300 buses operating in regional New South Wales and certainly in my area of Calare. They recently reaffirmed their commitment to Australian made by once again ordering Australian built Bustech bodies for 2014. Some six or eight weeks ago, I visited the Bustech manufacturing plant on the Gold Coast and met with director, Joe Calabro, who is delighted, quite obviously, with the outcome.

Locally, Buslines runs about 300 school buses in regional New South Wales, including in Lithgow, Orange, Molong and Bathurst, providing an extremely valuable, important and safe service. For the past 15 years, Buslines had purchased Bustech Australian made bus bodies, but were considering opportunities to purchase bodies produced in Malaysia and China. Like every business today, they had to look at their costs and their options. The overseas produced bodies were many thousands of dollars cheaper due to the difference in materials used and the labour costs.

Particularly, Buslines cited to me superior quality as the major factor in their decision, but also the high level of support offered by Bustech in warranty and maintenance of the bodies over the life of the vehicles. Yes, lower maintenance costs were a big factor, but also a longer operating time frame made it a very good business decision for them to do what they did. If they bought from Bustech, they bought a very superior bus body that they knew would be safer, would last longer and they would get a much better long-term return. I commend Buslines for putting their money where their mouth is and banking on Australian made, because this decision will have far wider implications for the economy and for jobs. Not only will our local children be travelling on safer buses to school every day but also Australian workers will be kept in employment and our skill base will not only be maintained but enhanced.

This goes hand in hand with our policy of encouraging young people to take up a trade, whether it be in building, construction, boilermaking or even fabrication engineering. These young people will be supported financially through our Trade Support Loans so that they can go on and complete their training, ensuring that we have the skilled workers to compete internationally. I believe it was a groundbreaking decision to allow apprentices to take advantage of the HECS scheme and to get loans up to $20,000 over two or three years.

Peter Ferris, the CEO of the Buslines Group, said they currently have around $50 million in capital invested in their fleet of school and route buses operating in regional and rural New South Wales. He said that to ensure that buslines were making the best business decision when purchasing bodies, he recently travelled to Malaysia to look at the three alternative bus body manufacturing plants. Although these products were good quality and considerably cheaper—and I mean many thousands of dollars cheaper than the Australian-built Bustech bodies that they had been buying—when they considered the whole-of-life costs of the bodies they were convinced that staying with Bustech was the best decision for their passengers and the best decision for their company. An important consideration for Buslines was the ongoing support that Bustech offered in keeping manufacturing jobs and training in Australia. The group employs 16 apprentices in regional New South Wales, so they know the importance of having the best workers.

I think we must continue to train and support apprentices. We can never build cheaper than some other countries but we can and we do build better. Let us look to the future, let us look to something that lasts longer and, like Buslines and Bustech, let's do the right thing by Australia.

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