Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse and adopt the comments by the member for Corangamite in relation to the Geelong Star fishing vessel. Everybody is glad to see the back of it. My region had exactly the same issues on the Sapphire Coast; it also had an impact on our marine environment. So good riddance, we all say.

I particularly rise today in outrage over the news that Essential Energy in New South Wales has been granted permission to shed another 600 regional jobs in New South Wales. I know you will be well aware of this issue, Deputy Speaker Bird. All around the country and in rural New South Wales, we are seeing devastating job losses that are being put into effect by Essential Energy. In my region in Queanbeyan, we had a 40 per cent reduction of staff earlier this year, with job losses in depots in Jindabyne, Bombala, Moruya, Braidwood, Tumut, Tumbarumba, Yass, Cooma and Bega. Already 900 jobs statewide are gone. This has a massive impact on local and regional communities, as you would also be aware, Deputy Speaker. Essential Energy have been granted permission to force 600 redundancies by 30 June 2018. An unlimited number of staff can be forcibly made redundant from 1 July 2018 onwards, and they will be replacing regional employees with outsourced contractors.

The Fair Work Commission commented on the impact of this decision when it said:

Employees located in country towns will find it difficult to obtain alternative work, either of a comparable standard or at all, in their current locations.

Job opportunities are generally limited, and jobs involving the specialist skills of electrical tradespersons formerly employed by Essential Energy are virtually non-existent.

It is likely that many redundant employees will have to relocate themselves and their families in order to obtain alternative employment.

This will necessarily have direct personal effects on employees and their family members in having to change their house, community and school.

It may also have effects on smaller towns in terms of the loss of income able to be spent locally and a possible diminution in community involvement.

We know only too well the devastating effects these job losses are having on our rural and regional towns, and it simply amazes me that this New South Wales government-controlled entity is another example of this state government simply not listening to or working for the benefit of rural and regional New South Wales.

I do not know how many times they have to be told this. I do not know how many Orange by-elections or state elections there will have to be before they get the message that we are not going to stand for this devastation of our rural communities anymore. Worse than that, we are also seeing the impact of these job losses in the effect on the maintenance of the grid, the effect on maintenance of services, to rural and regional communities. They broke a system that was not broken, and I want to thank the ETU and the USU for standing up and fighting for these regional workers.

See this speech in context