‘We understand what bad looks like’: Brickworks concerned about Victoria

Brickworks boss Lindsay Partridge has expressed concerns about the risk of a second wave of COVID-19 spreading in Victoria and impacting a major production plant in one of the hot-spot suburbs.

Australia’s largest brick manufacturer is justifiably uneasy after being forced to deal with the sudden shutdown of part of it’s US operations.

“In America, we faced a situation where the governor of Pennsylvania closed down five of our factories, we had no choice, we were out of business,”

“We understand what bad looks like, and maybe over there we’re coming out of it now,”

Brickworks manufactures extensively in Australia. About one in every two bricks laid in this country comes from a Brickworks factory floor.

Speaking with Money News host Brooke Corte, Mr Partridge says Australian manufacturing could be resurrected if firms could rely on reasonably priced energy.

“We’ve got two new factories being built at the moment, we’re building them with their own power stations because we can’t rely on the electricity [grid],” he said.

“Last summer in South Australia, we’ve got a plant there with three generators to look after it and we ran them most of the summer to stabilise the grid – not for power for us but just to stabilise the grid,

“This is third-world country stuff.”

Click play to hear the full interview: