Jobs ain’t jobs

“PROJECTS giving Tassie a boost” (Mercury, February 11) outlines major projects that indicate confidence in Tasmania’s future development, with large hotels being built in Hobart and Launceston among other buildings. Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey says the “developments would have a significant impact on the local economy” and then registers his disappointment on “hearing that interstate workers are being bought in to do the build”. It is disappointing, but not surprising. Should the proposed Northern Prison be built on the outskirts of Westbury, why would anything be different? Jobs for locals would be limited to “tea boy” jobs, not the hundreds of real jobs being echoed by the gullible to the promises of the manipulative.

Doreen Wileman Westbury