Plan needed to transition Victorian Latrobe region away from coal
Locals from regional Victoria say they need a plan to reskill their workforce and maintain their economy after the announcement of a power station’s closure.
Locals in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley accept the transition to renewable energy, but say they have not been briefed with a clear path away from coal that will sure up confidence in their future economy.
AGL announced on Thursday it would close its Loy Lang A power station in 2035, a decade earlier than planned and unveiling its plan to exit coal.
Generations of power station workers live in nearby towns, including Traralgon, Morewell and Moe, which are all about 150km east of Melbourne.
Traralgon’s chamber of commerce treasurer David Clark said he believed most of the country – if not the world – understood the move to renewable energy generation was inevitable.
“(But it is) important to retain consumer and business confidence in the town. Latrobe Valley would benefit from a clear plan and method about how we move away from coal,” he said.
Mr Clark said he would like to know what industries will replace the power station and when.
He also said locals could become concerned about unemployment levels increasing if workers are not reskilled to take up jobs in replacement industries.
“Will we lose the level of industry of people buying goods and services that we have now,” he said. “They are paid well – they buy nice houses, cars, and go to nice restaurants. It will become more of a worry. (There will be a) large impact on the town.”
Former mayor and Latrobe city councillor Sharon Gibson said she was “concerned” about the lack of transition plan with the closure of nearby Yallourn power station due in 2028 and the prior closure of the Hazelwood power station in 2017.
“The three major towns … are really going to be severely impacted, not just in employment but also in power. It’s great to have renewables, but what is the transition plan,” she said.
Ms Gibson said she established a transition taskforce, which first met last year, but it has made little progress in the way of plans to diversify their economy.
“It was designed to put in place a just transition for the Valley and to look at what opportunities can be brought to Latrobe city to transform the economy,” she said.
“We have been the power (house) for Victoria … because (we supplied) cheap reliable power. That had made us boom for decades. Now it’s time they come to the party and look after us because we looked after the state.”
Secretary of Victoria’s Mining and Energy division of the CFMEU Mark Richards called on the federal government to establish a national energy transition fund and authority to manage an orderly move away from coal, reskill workers and ensure regional communities sustain their economies. “Worker redeployment sounds great, but it’s not good if there are no good jobs in your region,” he said.
“These people have committed to a region (and) these jobs take years to get to these positions. They are specific trades.
Mr Richards said one clear transition path to renewable energy was to use the existing workforce and infrastructure to convert coal to hydrogen.
Latrobe Valley power station worker Tony Wolfe said while the news came as a shock, the move to renewable energy was inevitable.
“Today is a sad day for the community and the workforce. But I am optimistic,” he said.
“I know that we have somewhere between $30-$40bn worth of renewable projects in Gippsland. I don’t think we are going to have people sitting around without work. We need to identify what skills are currently there and reskill (workers).”
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