Incumbent Gilmore MP Fiona Phillips has slammed her Liberal rivals' history of sending manufacturing jobs offshore, while spruiking Labor's plans to build more trains locally.
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Joined by Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) members at Nowra on Thursday, Mrs Phillips had a McKell Institute report in hand that showed the cost of offshoring major transport projects in NSW.
As NSW transport minister, Andrew Constance oversaw the procurement of trains for the Intercity Fleet and Sydney Metro.
This was $2.8 billion worth of work that cost more than 7000 Australian jobs, including 600 in the Illawarra and South Coast, according to the report.
"Andrew Constance is trying to be the member for Gilmore who offshored 7289 jobs," Mrs Phillips said.
"I want those jobs here. I'm part of an Albanese Labor government where we will make more things locally ... and I think that's a clear choice."
Mr Constance, who accused his opponent of running a political stunt against him, defended his record and said 130,000 Australian jobs were generated under his responsibility.
"130,000 jobs - that's great maintenance jobs, great infrastructure jobs, great construction jobs, $3.5 billion dollars into the Princes Highway, which generated thousands of jobs," he listed.
"I will just say this. This is a positive election campaign for the people of Gilmore.
"It's not about the unions, it's not about Fiona, it's not about me. I think these personal attacks have gone on enough now."
AMCU secretary Cory Wright also put Mr Constance on blast for recent comments made on Shoalhaven radio that no one in the Australian market "put their hand up" to build the 500 new trains locally.
At the time, Stadler Australia, the local arm of Swiss train manufacturer Stadler Rail, was shortlisted for the project.
"As soon as the contract was released in May 2016, we campaigned on the ground and within a matter of weeks, we had over 10,000 signatures to create a debate in parliament on why the trains should be built here," Mr Wright said.
"Andrew Constance ... didn't even turn up for the debate. Our members were absolutely appalled.
"And to hear on the radio recently, blatantly lying to the people of Gilmore saying that there was no manufacturing capability in NSW at that time, we can't stand by and not call that out."
The Intercity Fleet was outsourced to South Korea and was expected to be fully operational by this year.
"It is not value for money for taxpayers to have these trains sitting in warehouses in South Korea and Newcastle," Mrs Phillips said.
Mr Constance said the unions claims of trains not fitting on tracks were "a little bit sick", and added they were made wider to fit accessible toilets.
"That decision to make a wide train was deliberate so that you could put a disability toilet onto that train," he said.
"And I will make no apologies for doing that."
Mrs Phillips pointed to Labor's National Rail Manufacturing Plan which aims to build more trains in Australia and said it would create jobs in Gilmore, but couldn't specify how many.
"I don't have an exact number, but it will create a lot of jobs. We will work with the state government to ensure that there are contracts to actually build trains right here," she said.
"We've also committed to a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to actually get manufacturing going."
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