It's time to bring public transport manufacturing back to NSW.

Whether it's trains, trams, buses or ferries, we should build them here.

Australian manufacturing workers are some of the best in the world. For decades, workers in Sydney, the Hunter, the Illawarra and the regions built the public transport that keeps NSW running.

But for 12 years, the Liberals and Nationals have privatised and offshored our public transport needs – sending billions of dollars and thousands of jobs offshore. We lost a generation of manufacturing workers, their skills, and their knowledge.

In return, we got trains that were too wide for the tracks, ferries that can't handle Sydney Harbour's swells, and trams riddled with cracks – all delivered past deadline and over budget.

Ahead of the NSW state election on March 25, we're asking political parties and candidates to commit to:

• designing, building, and maintaining our trains, trams, buses and ferries in NSW — creating jobs for local workers;
• supporting procurement policies that mandate the use of local content on government transport contracts, with preference given to local manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers;
• making safety and reliability a priority in the procurement of new public transport, and consult with end users through every step of the process; and
• investing in the TAFE system to ensure we have a skilled manufacturing workforce.

If the next NSW Government commits to locally-made public transport, we can create hundreds of well-paid, secure jobs, revitalise domestic manufacturing, and build the quality trains, trams, buses and ferries that NSW needs.

We built them here once. Let's build them here again.