MS TIERNEY– To ask the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations: In relation to the 90 job losses at the Boral Cement plant in Waurn Ponds: What assistance will the Baillieu government provide Boral workers in Waurn Ponds who have recently been made redundant.
ANSWER:
I am informed that:
Officers of the Department of Business and Innovation contacted Boral at Waurn Ponds on 6 December 2012 to discuss the decision to cease production of clinker for cement manufacturing, and the conditions and timing of redundancies.
The department has offered to coordinate information and support for affected employees from the relevant government agencies and service providers, including Workers in Transition program.
However, I note the chairman of Boral, Mr Bob Every, who told the Courier Mail in November 2011 that: ‘It will be difficult to ever justify building another cement kiln in Australia, owing to the impact of the carbon tax’. He also said the carbon tax was ‘putting Boral at a disadvantage compared with offshore competitors’.