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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-07-26 Daily Xml
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Northern Connector

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister inform the house how South Australian jobseekers and industry can apply for work on the Northern Connector project?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:04): I thank the member for Little Para for his question and I commend his hard work as head of the Northern Connector Jobs Taskforce in ensuring that both the maximum number of jobs are secured by South Australians but particularly those people residing in the northern suburbs.

As the house would be aware, the Northern Connector project is another step in creating a nonstop north-south corridor between Gawler and Old Noarlunga. The project involves the construction of a new six-lane 15.5 kilometre road to the west of Port Wakefield Road, linking the Northern Expressway and Port River Expressway to the South Road Superway and Salisbury Highway connector.

The Northern Connector project will support, on average, 480 full-time equivalent jobs each year during construction. It has been a priority of this government to maximise the number of jobs for South Australian workers. It is imperative to ensure that those who are seeking work in the northern suburbs, especially those feeling the full brunt of the federal Coalition's decision to chase Holden out of South Australia, are given the best opportunity to secure work on this project.

As I previously advised the house, the successful tenderer is Lendlease, the company which delivered the duplication of the Southern Expressway. To their credit, they are working to ensure that at least half of these jobs on the Northern Connector are awarded to northern suburbs workers from the local government areas of Port Adelaide Enfield, Salisbury, Playford, Tea Tree Gully, Light, Mallala, Gawler and Barossa. I hope this project can achieve similar outcomes to the works undertaken on the Southern Expressway where, I am advised, more than 90 per cent of the 1,800 workers were South Australian, with 58 per cent of those in the workforce residing in the southern suburbs.

As the house would be aware, a training and employment centre, called NorthHub, is established on the site at Waterloo Corner, and once works on the ground get started (with works ramping up in October this year) this will be a major location for jobseekers not only to seek out employment opportunities but also to receive on-the-ground training.

While these centres provide a great service, in order for those seeking work on the project to easily access information about potential employment and training opportunities, whether it be as a civil construction worker, a formwork construction worker, a site supervisor, a project engineer, a safety professional, administrative professional, trainee or apprentice, today I am pleased to announce that the NorthHub website has gone live. The website can be accessed at northhub.sa.gov.au.

The NorthHub website will advertise both current job opportunities and expressions of interest for future roles. The website will help keep jobseekers updated who are interested in working on the project and those who express an interest in a specific role when it becomes available. For applications, those people who have registered on the Lendlease careers page will automatically receive notifications for all roles advertised in that job area. They will also receive updates from the project team about how works are progressing and anticipated time frames for when employment opportunities will become available.

Further, Lendlease will be working with jobactive providers in the northern region to help connect the project with jobseekers. The NorthHub website will also contain all employment opportunities with Lendlease and all of their local industry partners delivering the Northern Connector project. Further, the Northern Connector project will set a new benchmark for local industry participation on public infrastructure projects in South Australia, and I encourage local industry and suppliers to find more information about potential opportunities on the ICN Gateway or by visiting the NorthHub website and clicking on Local Industry.

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