State job strategy gains Momentum

ELECTRICITY retailer Momentum Energy will add 40 local call centre jobs to its Hobart operations, Premier Peter Gutwein said yesterday during a tour of the company’s headquarters.

The government-owned business will add capacity to its Cambridge-based call centre, fulfilling an election promise made by the Government to shift interstate jobs here.

“I’m very pleased to announce that the first 40 of 70 jobs that were based in Melbourne are going to be hitting the ground running and the Momentum call centre will be operating here in Tasmania,” Mr Gutwein said.

“What this means is that there will be millions of dollars invested into a local economy through the wages that are paid, importantly, there’s been some capital spent in upgrading this particular set-up.

“As a government our focus very strongly has been to grow the economy, attract investment and create jobs, and working closely with the government businesses.”

The government business enterprise Hydro Tasmania owns Momentum, which is not allowed to retail electricity or gas in Tasmania, except on the Bass Strait islands.

Hydro Tasmania chief executive Steve Davy said recruitment had been boosted by a hugely successful open day held at Cambridge in December, with more than 150 people attending, and more than 110 attending an open day yesterday, with recruitment campaigns continuing into February.

Employing call centre operators in Tasmania worked well for Momentum’s customers, he said.

“That’s definitely the business model that we’ve always adopted,” he said.

“We’ve always had our customer-facing people based here in Australia.

“The move that we’re making is to change the footprint to here in Tasmania, whereas previously we had a larger footprint in Victoria.”

“When you add the more than 70 relocated jobs to the existing 20 call centre jobs we have here, that makes nearly 100 Tasmanian employees out of a total Momentum Energy workforce of 300.”

Mr Gutwein is expected to announce his reshuffled cabinet today.