Premier’s keynote address – The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP
Premier’s keynote address Then New South Wales Premier, The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP Interviewer: ► Adrian Dwyer, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
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New South Wales is leading the country on vaccination rates, which will help enable a faster return to normality and deliver a boost to the state’s economy. Continuous and honest engagement between government and industry during the construction shutdown – to work together, implement safe work practices and get worksites back up and running – has the potential to be a lasting legacy of the pandemic and improve productivity moving forward. The New South Wales Government remains committed to delivering a record pipeline of projects and is confident infrastructure will be a key driver of economic prosperity in its recovery from the pandemic.
Then New South Wales Premier, The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP (GB): I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand, and pay our respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, and all of your members, who have stood by us during what has been an incredibly challenging time. Until this most recent Delta outbreak in New South Wales, we prided ourselves on not having a single day lost in terms of infrastructure and construction. As you all know, for a period of two weeks we had to temporarily halt all construction in Greater Sydney, which was a very difficult decision. In hindsight, when we look at the period and the number of cases we had at the time, you can’t put your finger on exactly what worked and what didn’t, but certainly for a long period of time we’ve been able to prevent exponential growth until we had our vaccination rates where they needed to be. In response to that pause, we’ve also allowed weekend work – and 24/7 work – on some sites through our regulations. While there’s a cap on the number of workers on any site at the moment, we are looking to address that in the very near future. Now, more than ever, the New South Wales Government is committed to delivering on its $108-billion infrastructure pipeline over the next four years. And even pre-COVID and pre-Delta, we’ve seen that
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