The Treasurer today announced the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would establish a telephone call centre in Burnie resulting in the creation of around 40 new jobs for the city.

The proposal is a major element of the Burnie Package and adds to other initiatives announced by Ministers John Fahey and Senator Jocelyn Newman when they visited Burnie following the announcement of Amcors closure of its pulping operations.

The creation of 40 jobs for the Australian Tax Office in Burnie is a significant boost to employment on the North West Coast. These are new skilled jobs and provide an example of how Regional Australia can attract clerical and professional jobs in competition to the cities because of the telecommunications linkages now available.

The 40 Tax Office jobs are in addition to the 45 Telstra jobs and the 40 to 50 jobs at the Centrelink National Pay Office. These new jobs in total could be expected to inject in the order of $3 million into the local economy.

The call centre will be a key element of a new compliance initiative by the ATO to follow up late payers and those people who fail to lodge tax returns.

The centre is planned to be operational by the middle of 1999 and the ATO would be looking to recruit most of the staff locally in the first half of 1999. It is expected that after an initial time lag, the additional revenue collected from this compliance initiative will exceed the costs of the centre on an ongoing basis.

The ATO will be liaising with the Tasmanian Government to ensure that the best use of existing facilities occurs. This will provide an opportunity for local building owners to share in growth in the North West Coast.

The Hawke/Keating Labor Governments:

• Ignored the North West Coast when Wanders closed in Devonport with over 100 jobs lost;
• Again ignored the North West Coast when 500 employees lost jobs from Burnie and Wesley Vale plants in 1992/93;
• Disregarded the North West Coast when Tioxide closed in 1995 with some 200 jobs lost.

In contrast, the Howard Government had a Ministerial Committee in Burnie listening to the community within two days of Amcors announcement.

Since then the Coalition Federal Government has committed:

• $150,000 for retraining of workers;
• $450,000 for the Burnie Business Incubator to be located in the old CTEC Building;
• A full time person to assist with job creation programs for at least 3 months;
• Committed $300,000 to minerals infrastructure study for the North West;
• 40 to 50 jobs at the Centrelink National Pay Office;
• 40 jobs in the ATO facility.

CANBERRA

30 July 1998

Contact: Niki Savva: 0418 868 710