Hazelwood: Dan Andrews, unions fret about jobs lost by own design

The Australian reporting on the closure of Victoria’s Hazelwood power station, yesterday:

The Turnbull government has announced a $43 million package to support 1000 workers who will lose their jobs as a result of the closure of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, announced today.

Everything going according to plan, then. The Herald Sun, June 9:

Binding targets introduced by the state government to make Victoria carbon neutral by 2050 mean the clock is officially ticking on the future of the state’s coalmines. Premier Daniel Andrews launched the plan this morning and said it meant Victoria was “leading the nation” to tackle climate change, which is “very real” and “very dangerous”.

Can’t they just be given green jobs? Dan Andrews reeling off the support available to laid-off Hazelwood workers, yesterday:

TAFE training, financial counselling, other emotional counselling if it is needed, all the sorts of supports that you would expect a good government to provide to each of those 750 workers and their families ...

The ABC reporting a glum mood among organised labour, ABC News website, Wednesday:

Unions have all but lost hope of a staged shutdown of the brown coal-fired power station, and the company is expected to make an announcement about the closure on Thursday.

CFMEU donation to GetUp! on August 13, 2010, GetUp! website:

$1,120,000

GetUp! later launching a campaign to close Hazelwood, GetUp! website:

Hazelwood power stations (sic) closure is well overdue. It’s one of the oldest and most inefficient power stations in the world, wreaking havoc on the environment and even killing people ...

The Age worries about rising incarceration rates amid “kneejerk reactions” about crime, Thursday:

Legal changes driven by public outcry over cases such as the murder of Jill Meagher have driven an almost 70 per cent increase in Victoria’s prison population in the past decade ...

“Despite” or “leading to”? The Age continues, yesterday:

The state’s prison population hasgrown by 67 per cent, from 3908 prisoners to 6520, despite the crime rate increasing by just 4 per cent between 2006 and 2015 … Of sentenced prisoners, most were in jail for crimes against the person — which includes assault, sexual assault and murder — and of those, most were in jail for sexual assaults.

How does your garden grow? One Nation senator-in-limbo Rod Culleton, news conference, Wednesday:

This is a constitutional matter and, boy, am I sharp on the Constitution, the real law of Australia, so this is right up my vegie patch.

Lawyer Dennis Denuto, The Castle:

In summing up, it’s the Constitution, it’s Mabo, it’s justice, it’s law, it’s the vibe, and … no that’s it … it’s the vibe. I rest my case.

Life imitating art? The Brisbane Times website, October 21:

An Ipswich lawyer has lost his appeal for $250,000 in damages after he was compared to the bumbling solicitor Dennis Denuto from the Australian movie classic, The Castle.

And that’s putting it kindly. Headline, SMH website, Thursday:

The real reason your quinoa tastes like dirt.