Minister to open Westpac Call Centre

2/7/03
State Development Minister Clive Brown today opened the Westpac Joondalup Call Centre - a facility which will eventually provide 450 jobs in two stages.
The centre, one of the largest of its kind in Australia, became operational in March this year and already employs 133 staff.
The centre is part of the Gallop Government's vision of creating 125,000 jobs over the next five years.
"The State Government's decision to provide assistance to the project was a strategic investment aimed at bringing much-needed jobs to Perth's northern suburbs, as part of our overall corridor development strategy," Mr Brown said.
"We are creating a stronger economy and more jobs and opportunities."
The Gallop Government's contribution will consist of $3.46million over five years for Stage One, and then up to $1.15million for the Stage Two development over a similar period.
The Minister said if the Government had not provided the financial assistance, the jobs would have gone elsewhere.
With the demise of Ansett, about 300 people employed at the call centre lost their jobs. Under this proposal, an extra 150 jobs will be created.
"The Westpac Call Centre will ultimately employ more people in higher paid and more technically advanced and demanding jobs," Mr Brown said.
"Westpac has put considerable investment into their latest contact centre technology, including their 'One Banking Platform,' which will provide a common PC operating environment for all staff across the state-of-the-art centre."
The centre is a commercial project of Edith Cowan University (ECU), one of the major sources of economic infrastructure in the northern metropolitan corridor and meets the Government's objective to encourage universities and training institutions to seek commercial and industrial partners.
ECU and West Coast College are offering comprehensive training in all aspects of call centre operations.
"The Joondalup area now has a substantial pool of trained call centre operators, making it attractive to other future development," Mr Brown said.
Westpac has developed their contact centres in response to the changing nature of banking. The Joondalup centre will offer Westpac's customers assistance with Internet and telephone banking.
The centre will operate five days a week, handling calls from Westpac's six million customers nation-wide.
Minister's office: 9222 9699