Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the Hazelwood power station is scheduled to close on 26 March 2017;

(b) its closure will affect 750 direct jobs in Gippsland;

(c) unemployment is already at 8.1 per cent in the Latrobe Valley;

(d) the Victorian Government has created a $266 million transition package for workers affected by the Hazelwood closure; and

(e) the Australian Government has only contributed $43 million to this transition package;

(2) acknowledges that government plays an important role in creating policy settings to attract new investment and jobs, both in the Latrobe Valley and across regional Australia in general;

(3) condemns the Australian Government's:

(a) inaction in not meeting with affected workers; and

(b) failure to act in setting policies that give business the confidence to invest and create jobs; and

(4) calls on Australian Government Ministers to meet with affected workers and their unions and to start investing in industry and jobs across regional Australia in the upcoming federal budget.

This week is a tough week for the Latrobe Valley, there is no denying that. This week we will see the Hazelwood Power Station close on 26 March. Affected at the core of this decision are 750 direct jobs in Gippsland, in a region where unemployment is already at 8.1 per cent. These are the first lines of this motion. When the government—this week and in previous weeks—has sought to politicise this closure and use every question time that they can to go the state Labor government and to make as much political mileage out of this issue as they can, it is important to remember that at the core of it are 750 workers who are going through transition. We on this side talk about it as a just transition—the need for governments to work with local communities and with industry to ensure that these workers have jobs to transition to. We have heard a lot of rhetoric from the government, particularly the Prime Minister, yelling at Labor and its unions: 'What are you doing about blue-collar jobs?' I will tell you what the Victorian state Labor government is doing about blue-collar jobs: it has created a $266 million transition package to support the workers and the communities affected by the Hazelwood closure. You would think, given the government's rhetoric, that they had matched this contribution but they have not. This federal government have only put $43 million into the transition package. Whilst we acknowledge it is a significant contribution, it is well short of the state Labor government's contribution—the very government that they continue to politicise and have a go at over this closure.

A bit of history about Hazelwood which members of the government seem to forget: it was first opened in 1964. It was privatised by a Liberal government, Jeff Kennett's, in 1996 and sold for $2.35 billion. That money has since been spent. This is why communities, Labor governments and Labor oppositions continue to oppose privatisation. What happens when an asset like a generator is privatised is that you lose control over what happens. I acknowledge that some members of the government have said that the overseas owners of the Hazelwood Power Station have made a commercial decision to close this facility. When it is no longer state-owned, it is no longer in our control. That is the very problem with privatisation. I also want to acknowledge how unhelpful the comments by the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, have been in offering false hope to those workers, saying that a state Labor government or a federal government should just step in and buy this asset. That is not helpful at this time. He should withdraw those comments and apologise to those workers. The closure was originally scheduled for 2005, so it does not come as a surprise to anybody in this community that this particular generator and asset is closing down. However, there is frustration from the community that it has taken this government so long to get on board with the plan. In other countries—like Germany, for example—they start planning shutdowns of coal-fired power stations 10 to 20 years out. That is not what we have seen in this case.

In the time I have remaining, I want to outline what some of the state Labor contribution is going towards. Money is going towards transition—that is, transfer partnerships which create vacancies by offering redundancies to people working in other electricity agencies. Over 150 jobs have been saved by helping people transition into other jobs. An economic growth zone has been created. The Latrobe Valley Authority has been created. Money has gone to worker and business support, a transition centre, and to support to help business and encourage business to move to the Latrobe Valley. To share a quote from one of the workers involved, a third-generation electricity worker, Bill Simpson, is 'pleasantly surprised' by the Victorian government's Latrobe Valley Worker Transfer Partnership Agreement, as he says he 'can hopefully stay in the industry'. These are the words of the workers. It is disappointing that this government, despite all their rhetoric, have not met with the workers to work out how they can support them. I ask the government to drop the politics, increase the funding and support these workers.

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