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Hansard - Matter of Public Importance - HazelwoodA Matter of Public Importance (MPI) from Russell yesterday on Hazelwood. By Portal Admin - 11th November 2016 - Back to News Mr NORTHE (Morwell) —
It is a disgrace that 1 minute was just wasted on this debate by the government without my having the opportunity to respond to some of the greatest rewriting of history that I have ever heard in my life and the misuse of the facts the previous speaker has just spoken about.
As you know, Deputy Speaker, Labor’s policy on this is well known:
Either you believe in closing Hazelwood or you don’t, and I do -
said former Premier John Brumby. Six years ago this policy was announced by the Labor Party, yet we now have Hazelwood closing in the very near future with no plan for transition in that time. Indeed we asked the Premier today in question time what his position is in terms of Hazelwood: does he believe in the policy of Hazelwood closing?
Honourable members interjecting.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER —
Order! There are a number of people out of their seats and interjecting. That is unparliamentary. I ask you to desist.
Mr NORTHE —
The now Premier said in 2011:
How will (Premier Ted) Baillieu reach the 20 per cent reduction target by 2020? He’s abandoned the staged closure of Hazelwood.
Also in 2011, at the same time, we had the now Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change being reported in this Parliament many times as saying:
Mr Baillieu’s decision to keep Hazelwood fully operating is disgraceful …
So even after today we are still not quite sure whether the Premier is walking a very tight tightrope here, if you like, pandering to the Greens in Melbourne on one side and on the other side trying to tell the Latrobe Valley people, 'We are looking after you' — and that is simply not the case. You do not have to hear it from me; I have many quotes which I will put into Hansard today of local people who are absolutely disgusted with the government’s actions or lack of action with respect to Hazelwood closing in the future.
One of the questions that has been asked of me by the workers, contractors and local businesses is: how hard has this government fought to save jobs in the Latrobe Valley? It has almost accepted the decision without any intervention whatsoever or exploring any other options or initiatives. In his contribution the member for Bulleen talked about the notion of having some alternatives. Has the government looked at any prospective buyers? Has it worked hard to make sure that the company could have a staged closure, which all the workers thought was going to happen? Has it looked at other initiatives and making sure that those impacted Hazelwood workers might have opportunities for employment with other generators in the Latrobe Valley? They do not need to be explored today; they needed to have been explored months ago.
One of the greatest disappointments we have had in Latrobe Valley over these last two years is, despite the ramblings of the previous speaker, that this government abolished a number of programs that had been put in place by the coalition, indeed in consort by the state coalition government and the federal Labor government, in 2011. There was $35 million towards a Latrobe Valley Industry and Employment Road map in 2011. We had the Latrobe Valley Industry and Infrastructure Fund, which was set up to support local businesses to grow, to expand and to create jobs. Over 1100 jobs were created through that particular
initiative. We had Skilling the Valley to help workers who might have been out of work for a period of time to be reskilled and find employment. We had the Regional Partnerships Facilitation Fund. All of those are gone, with nothing in their place for two years.
What has happened since? I can tell you what has happened since. It is a fact that in December 2014 unemployment in Latrobe city was 7.3 per cent. It was too high— conceded absolutely. It is now 10.7 percent. This is even before the announcement about Hazelwood’s closure. It is a crying shame. Despite the
announcements of packages by the state government, it is too late for many people in the Latrobe Valley who have been trying to find work in these last 18 months to 2 years. Those figures are not my figures. They are ABS statistics.
We have had an increase in unemployment of almost 50 per cent in a municipality in less than two years. In the township of Morwell unemployment is now 19.7 per cent. It is a disgrace, and something needs to happen about that. But when you get rid of the programs that were in place and when you tax your major
employers to the tune of $252 million, that is not helpful to creating jobs and employment. It does the reverse. The ramblings of the government about the increase in the coal tax having no repercussions or no impact are absolutely not true. It is absolutely not true at all, and the Leader of the Opposition today has made comments and quoted from Engie about that.
In terms of what people in the Latrobe Valley are feeling at the moment, it is really interesting. I will quote from a newspaper article. The quote is attributed to the former Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) mining and energy president, Luke van der Meulen. It reports that he said:
… he had been aware the closure was imminent and had been pushing for Engie to provide —
some certainty. He also said:
… the union had wanted the government to facilitate talks with the other power stations in the area to offer redundancies to older workers so that younger ones from Hazelwood could take their jobs.
'But none of that has happened,' he said. 'The government is either unwilling or completely unable
to bring any of that about. 'They should enforce decent discussion from the power companies on how they are going to deal
with the closure of Hazelwood and minimise the impact on the community'.
That is from a former CFMEU official, and he is right. There are good ideas out there that do not need to be explored now; this should have been happening months and months and months ago as discussion around the closure of Hazelwood came to the fore.
Former Labor candidate for the seat of Morwell and current Latrobe City councillor Graeme Middlemiss is reported in the newspaper as saying:
This process must be led by the state government in close consultation with the community, not by the departing power company. It appears that the state government is again being slow to face up to its responsibilities in the Latrobe Valley.
Then there were a plethora of comments that have been attributed to workers and contractors and people within our local community, and they are replete. The Latrobe Valley Express and indeed the Herald Sun reported:
… Hazelwood worker Ron … said he would probably leave the valley, 'because that's where the
work is'.
…
David Wilson, a unit controller at Hazelwood … said new jobs were needed. Without them, young families may split as one parent searches elsewhere for work.
Those examples are replete. I think most pressing for me is the fact that I have been contacted by a number of young workers at Hazelwood, either directly employed or as contractors. These are young people who have not been at Hazelwood for a long period of time. Despite media reports that on average these workers are going to get $300 000, it is simply not true. The case for many is they will walk away with very, very little in terms of financial assistance. But what they will walk away with is not having a job. At the same time that does not help them when they have got significant mortgages and financial
commitments. They have got all these pressing commitments that they have to meet. They are reasonably well remunerated where they work at the moment, but there is no job equivalent for these people to find.
It is nice to think that they can work in the rehabilitation of the mine and all of that, but it just does not curry favour with the workers there. They want real jobs. That is the strong feedback I have had. They want real jobs in our community so they can continue to live in our community. As we heard yesterday from Todd, who is a worker out at Hazelwood, the reality is that he might have to pack up his family and leave the Latrobe Valley. That is the last thing that he wants to do, and that is the last thing we want to see.
You cannot get away from the fact that this is Labor’s policy, this is what they have wanted to happen. They could not even get a partial or gradual closure right. This is going to happen in less than five months, and it is a disgrace.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: support@gippsland.com
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