Calls for AGL shareholder Mike Cannon-Brooke to visit community rocked by Loy Yang A station closure

Shell-shocked workers at Victoria’s largest power station want Mike Cannon-Brookes to personally explain the decision to close the plant early.

The mayor of La Trobe Valley has called upon billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes to leave his luxury estate south of Sydney and visit the community left reeling by the shock decision to close Victoria’s largest power station ten years early.

Kellie O’Callaghan said it was vital Mr Cannon-Brookes, who is AGL’s largest shareholder and has campaigned for the energy giant to abandon coal by 2035, speak to the 575 workers affected by the decision to close Loy Yang A station.

“I very much would welcome the opportunity to meet Mr Cannon-Brookes, so he has a very clear understanding about what the community’s contribution has been to the industry, so there will be a respectful and kind transition” she said.

“There is an opportunity for AGL, its board and for Mike Cannon Brookes to engage with the community directly so we can manage this transition.”

The council has estimated it will lose $4m a year in rates from the closure of Yallourn and Loy Yang A power stations, saying this would affect community services and facilities “long-term”.

Cr O’Callaghan said the move away from coalfired power would affect “thousands of direct and indirect jobs”.

Wendy Farmer, Brett Farmer, and Phil Greenhill are disappointed the plant will close earlier than scheduled.

“The early closures of AGL Loy Yang A and predictions for others locally, decades before they were expected, could jeopardise all this preparation (for transition),” she said.

Locals warned the closure would devastate communities, with longtime resident Anita Louise saying the news was a “death knell for the Valley”.

“With Hazelwood gone, Yallourn next, followed by Loy Yang, where is the long-term job security to keep people here?” she said.

“No work, people move on and the towns struggle.”

Anthony Bennett, from Moe, said the town was “already hurting”. “We have been left behind and forgotten,” he said. “We need a plan on where all the workers will go.”

Another local, Rohan Attard, said the government talked about a transition but wasn’t prepared to pay for it.

“I hope they do (have a plan) or it’ll be the final nail in the coffin down here,” he said.

Mike Cannon-Brookes is AGL’s largest shareholder and has campaigned for the energy giant to leave coal by 2035.

La Trobe power plant worker Tony Wolfe said there would be frustration in the valley, which had provided electricity for more than 100 years.

“Once again, the dates have been changed and the goalposts have been moved, but I don’t think it would be totally unexpected,” he said.

Wendy Farmer of advocacy group Voices of the Valley said the region had repeatedly been promised government support only to be let down.

“We need to make sure all levels of government have a clear plan forward,” she said.

“It’s not just the workers who are affected by this but the community as a whole.”

In nearby Morwell, the scars are still visible from the privatisation of the electricity market in the 1990s that triggered job losses, with empty shops and unemployment sitting at 15.3 per cent.

“It was like walking down Swanston St at busy times (in Morwell),” Victorian Mining and Energy Union secretary Mark Richards said.