Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

One of the first things I learned as a trade union official is that you never, ever, ever mislead people, and the Leader of the Opposition will pay for what he has done. He has created this apprehension in the Latrobe Valley and in many other regions with statements to the effect that Whyalla will be wiped off the map. Just imagine what that means to families in Whyalla—what a disgrace. You have to stand before people and deal with them with some integrity, and that has been lacking in the coalition's approach. As the carbon price comes into effect, this will become clearer and clearer to members of the community, including the Latrobe Valley.

I do not suggest the question was put in any inappropriate way. I know that the member is genuine in his concerns, but I think that we have to keep things in perspective here. We are acutely conscious of the circumstances that the Latrobe Valley and, in particular, the brown coal generation sector find themselves in. A very significant amount of funding of course was allocated in the form of energy security payments in the package to ensure that there was confidence on the part of the investors, the equity holders and the debt providers, for the brown coal generators in the Latrobe Valley, and I think there is evidence that those payments have been successful by their continuing confidence in the assets that are there. That is very important for people's jobs as well. The government committed significant funds to ensure that there was ongoing confidence in those assets and in the region.

I have visited the Latrobe Valley a couple of times over the last 12 or 18 months to talk to people about this issue, and I can assure the member that I am as concerned as anyone else to ensure the wellbeing of that community. A number of the electricity generators in the Latrobe Valley region did indicate that they would like to discuss, in the appropriate process, the contract-for-closure issue, and those discussions have been continuing in an appropriate way through the department of my colleague the Minister for Resources and Energy. They are commercial-in-confidence discussions. Our public policy announced in July last year, to which we continue to adhere, is that that process would be brought to a conclusion by 30 June, which of course is imminent. That remains our policy position.

It is not appropriate for me to speculate on the outcome at this point in time, but the process that we initiated should appropriately be continued and a conclusion reached. I can say to people in the Latrobe Valley that we are very mindful of the circumstances there. We have put a lot of resources into supporting them. We are working very closely with the business community and, I might add, with the Victorian government in relation to these issues.

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