MILDURA Rural City Council has copped a spray from a Sunraysia agricultural manufacturer which sells its equipment all around Australia – but is overlooked for major work in its own backyard.
Interlink Sprayers boss Peter McWilliams’ biggest beef is that a local council officer doesn’t pick up the phone to contact his business directly about work.
Interlink is the latest Mildura business to slam the local council for being overlooked for work over the past two decades.
It comes after local architects Larry Cavallaro and Andrew Nairn called for a review of the council’s tendering system after they lost out to Melbourne consultants for a $6 million redesign of the Powerhouse precinct on Mildura riverfront.
“I completely agree with Larry (Cavallaro) when he made the point of the greater expense to ratepayers by the council using so many out-of-town consultants,” Mr McWilliams said.
“These out-of-towners have no empathy with Mildura. We have the local expertise here, across many areas, and we’re the agricultural and irrigation leaders in Australia.
“Why not look to us first?”
Mr McWilliams claimed that council had, at times, used out-of-town suppliers for spraying-related equipment and services in recent years.
“This is all stuff we could provide,” said Mr McWilliams, whose local business has come up with at least 30 technological innovations since it opened in 1990.
“I’m au fait with what spraying stuff is coming to Mildura and I know council has had some brought here from St Arnaud, and there’s another supplier from Geelong.
“I have 45 local people working for me. That’s 45 Mildura families who are affected by us not being approach by council to quote for work.”
However, a council spokesman denied that Interlink had been overlooked in recent years.
“Interlink is among the local businesses we source spray equipment and parts from, including a ute-mounted spot sprayer last year,” the spokesman said.
“Council sourced equipment or parts from Interlink on 73 occasions between 2017 and January 18 this year.”
Mr McWilliams hit back, saying this only amounted a “few thousand dollars”.
“We have the biggest range of sprayers in Australia. Yet it’s not good enough for our council,” he said.
“I don’t expect special treatment over the locals. But I do expect preference by council over some bugger in Melbourne who doesn’t know anything about Mildura.”
He said he had been “directly approached” by councils as far away as Mareeba, in Far North Queensland, which have bought spraying equipment from Interlink.
“We did trailing sprayers for Mareeba, and other councils in Queensland, such as Toowoomba, have bought skid sprayers from us,” said Mr McWilliams, who said he paid more than $50,000 in rates to Mildura council last year.
“But we never get a call from Mildura council to set up an account. It doesn’t make any sense.”
A council spokesman said it was “very rare” that spraying equipment would be sourced from out of the region.
“It would generally only happen if local suppliers are unable to provide this equipment,” he said.
“All of our spraying is done in-house, and where this isn’t possible we engage local spraying businesses.
“We encourage local businesses and suppliers, such as Interlink, interested in providing goods and services to our organisation to apply for tenders when they are advertised.”
The spokesman said local businesses were encouraged to register for council’s online quoting system, VendorPanel, which provides email alerts to suppliers, letting them know about business opportunities.
