Mr Tudehope said the measure would act as a “quasi-stimulus package” for businesses as the state government rolls out its clean-up response.
“We want to put money back into those towns,” he said. “What we will be doing is saying to the response teams,‘You've got to use local businesses’.”
As part of the initiative,the government will on Monday launch an online portal where local businesses can register for work and where state agencies and councils will upload details of clean-up tenders.
Mr Tudehope said the preference for local operators would be emphasised throughout the supply chain.
“If there is a tier-one contractor involved in delivering public works,for example,then we will be including a provision in that arrangement that those contractors have got to source their contractors from local contractors,” he said.
The Berejiklian government’s response was triggered after businesses in fire-ravaged towns complained that businesses from metro areas were profiting from the bushfire recovery process at the expense of local operators.
Sylvia Anderson,owner of Anderson Cranes in Eden,a small community on the state’s South Coast,said the town was struggling to recover after a large blaze came within kilometres of the town earlier this month.