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July 10th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Concerns have been raised about the potential for an exodus of construction workers from Tasmania, because of lengthy delays with the Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment.
The Denison Independent, Andrew Wilkie, claims the $586 million project is 18 months behind schedule and the State Government is to blame.
“At the end of the day a big project like this requires strong leadership from the State Government and we’re not getting that.”
Tasmania’s union boss, Kevin Harkins, says the hold-up means the contractor, John Holland, is struggling to retain workers.
“We think it’s ridiculous, it’s costing jobs it’s causing stress in our industry.
“No-one can explain to us why it’s being delayed and obviously there’s a fair bit of incompetence being displayed from someone.”
The State Government says the RHH project is ten months behind schedule.
The Premier Lara Giddings says stage one of the redevelopment is complete and the next stage is at a critical planning phase.
The Federal Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, visited the Royal today and says big projects cannot be rushed.
“Every health Minister would love things to be done yesterday but this is a very large and complex project.
“You look around and see the site we’re on, you’ve got old buildings that need to be added to, you’ve got a site that’s right in the middle of the city, it does make it quite a complex building process,” the Minister said.
The construction industry fund, Tas Build, says more than 600 workers left the state’s building industry in the year to June, and there are fears others will follow, creating a skills shortage.
The Chief Executive Officer, Chris Atkins, says his members are desperate for work.
“They’re actually saying there’s no future, they can’t see where their next job’s coming.
“Work’s certainly drying up and they’re finding it hard to get jobs.”
Topics:
building-and-construction,
federal—state-issues,
hobart-7000
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-10/rhh-delays-spark-fears-of-a-labour-exodus/4812680
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