Next phase of Canberra light rail signals demand for diverse, local suppliers

Here is something novel: How about you award contracts based on who will provide the service cost-effectively and efficiently regardless of race, gender, sexual preferences, etc.? Employ the best people for the job based on their skills and experience to obtain the best outcome for the ACT taxpayer. Is everything this Labor/Greens Government does based on ideology and not common sense?

This is beyond parody. Presumably this trendy mixture of gender benders and ethnic minorities are responsible for the fact that we still don’t know, after so many years, how we are going to get the thing round State Circle, let alone what benefits we get from paying billions of dollars to replace the Tuggeranong-Civic stretch of the current number 4 bus …

Just get on and build it.

I observe from the photograph the absurd and dangerous landscaping either side of the track where dry flammable tussock grass sways in breeze. Mark my words. It will catch fire and burn furiously. No doubt there will be African love grass growing in the mix. Such grass is infamous for devastating and fast moving grass fires. I can envisage a situation of the tram being engulfed in flames mid journey. I also observe the line of trees planted closely to the overhead power cables. Dwarf species or other wise the branches will connect with power lines through negligence. I wouldn’t assume the Government has wherewithal to maintain the safety of the tram system.

So the ACT tram is a DEI adhesive for social fabric? Not something you can buy at Bunnings I guess.

We get used to greens/labor media misrepresenting the rail costs. $577 construction contract is the tip of the iceberg. Jack D smoke and mirrors trick is excluding myriad of directly related costs like raising London circuit, design, procurement of more trams, retrofitting batteries, consultants payments, plus many other expenses which was what bj-ACT probably was referring to. And with a consistency of answering machine they portray objection to waste and mismanagement as the lack of alternative. Jack D – waste and mismanagement is not the only way how public money should be spent. Stage 2A will be finished by an alternative government albeit with due diligence.
We don’t need to fall down to “minimum standards of … employing” which are not based on merit. Public expects fair and just employment principles such as “…engagement and promotion that are based on merit; and requires effective performance..” among others providing the diversity and representation of the workforce. When they turn employment principles upside down by turning job to welfare this is when waste starts. And it is clearly demonstrated by $66 million wrong ICT invoices by Health department staff or waste on ACT’s $78 million on scrapped human resources project. And if Jack D says that waste is the only way how public money should be spend, and employment based on merit does not mean fair representation, I say now is the time for an alternative government.

We need “the right person for the job” legislation to do stop this madness of hiring people/companies based on their heritage, sex, identity, activism, political standing, etc. Procurement should be completely based on capability and capacity to deliver the scope of works to cost, quality and schedule thresholds.

Good old Jack D always running protection for Barr & Co.
Maybe you could provide evidence (apart from feeling good) on how these diversity supply laws “will contribute positively to our city”.

Will fabrication work done by straight Norwegian men enhance Canberra less than similar work done by gay women from Nigeria ?

Please enlighten us – or is it just “the vibe”.

As usual we will always have those naysayers of light rail with their smart alec comments who are given space in these pages to undermine the project. We have flapdoodle whose comment is unintelligible. We have bj-ACT misrepresenting the costs of the project with his made-up figures. The ACT Government has signed a $577m contract (not $1.5b as he claims) with Capital Metro to construct light rail Stage 2A to Commonwealth Park, with the Commonwealth tipping in a further $125.5m.

We have Grumpy questioning and scoffing at diversity of opportunity requirements which he undermines as laws only found in the ACT. This phase of the light rail project offers business and employment opportunities to a workforce who will contribute positively to our city, as one would expect. This includes those responsible for the project committing to achieving minimum standards of representation of our citizens by employing people from a variety of backgrounds including those with a disability, apprentices, trainees, graduates, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders, women, senior leadership and management roles, unemployed, veterans, LGBTIQA+ community etc. etc.

If the Liberals are successful in this coming election what employment opportunities do they offer our our city’s workforce and their diversity of backgrounds?

I never worked anywhere where diversity quotas were a thing, until we moved to the ACT.

LR 2a takes everything to another level. Hopefully, they get lucky and find a few candidates that tick more than one box?

Crickey, I don’t even think if it’s legal to ask applicants questions about their “diversity” status? What do they do? Guess? Make assumptions?