Hunter’s political warriors out to cushion the blow

In coal country, detente on net zero may just have temporarily turned down the political temperature and switched on the lights for alternative futures.

Liberal candidate for Paterson Brooke Vitnell at Raymond Terrace. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

In coal country, a truce on net zero has not only turned down the political heat on emissions it just may have opened up the path to a number of alternative energy futures.

In the Hunter Region north of Sydney, people know there’s an end date to coal-fired power, but it won’t be next week or next year, and the nation’s coal exports will last as long as foreigners keep buying it to make electricity and steel.

But ahead of next year’s federal election, voters in this Labor stronghold demand to know how their communities will prosper in decarbonisation’s new economy and wonder which leader can be trusted to cushion the inevitable blows.

The Hunter is again shaping up as an industrial crucible.

Daniel Repacholi, who is standing for Labor in Hunter. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

The coal industry is coming to an end,” Newcastle electrical fitter Nathan Clements tells The Weekend Australian. “The challenge for government is to ensure there isn’t a huge loss of skills, high-paying jobs, and pay and conditions for the workers in the industry.”

Scott Morrison’s net-zero emissions pledge by 2050 at COP26 in Glasgow has put the spotlight on the nation’s clean ­energy and transition policies.

Mr Clements remanufactures the motors on equipment used for underground mining and is also studying commerce part-time at the University of Newcastle.

A delegate of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, he says the task for government, business and unions is to re-skill fossil fuel workers for a more sustainable industry, that may ­include green hydrogen, pumped hydro and battery storage.

Mr Clements supports the Muswellbrook Coal Company’s move to close Australia’s oldest open-cut mine in the Upper Hunter and turn it into an industrial hub with four renewable energy projects and training facilities.

Three Labor-held marginal seats in the region have been targeted by the Prime Minister, who visited Paterson and Shortland this week to launch a study into a local hydrogen hub.

At the Port of Newcastle, the world’s biggest gateway for coal exports, Mr Morrison said the ­Coalition’s plan to move to a lower emissions future “has the Hunter at the centre of our thinking”.

“Everything we do, every plan we have, every investment we’re making is making sure it works here in the Hunter because we know if it works here, it will work to create jobs and prosperity all across the country,” he said.

Liberal candidate for Shortland Nell McGill, a lawyer in Newcastle, said a lot of people in the electorate we1re worried about climate change, “but they’re also worried about keeping the lights on, affording their power bills and keeping their jobs”.

Ms McGill contested the seat in 2019 and managed a 5.5 per cent two-party swing against Labor’s Pat Conroy, who attended the Glasgow summit.

Liberal candidate for Shortland Nell McGill. Picture: Peter Lorimer

In Paterson, Liberal aspirant Brooke Vitnell said “there will be no premature shutdown of mining under a Coalition government”.

“I won’t be talking about those jobs in the past tense,” Ms Vitnell said. “One in six jobs in the Hunter relies on the coal industry. This can’t be an ideological debate about coal versus renewables. Australia wants action on climate change that keeps the cost of ­living down.”

A lawyer and former Coalition adviser, Ms Vitnell said voters would trust the party with the strongest track record on employment and the economy.

Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon is retiring at the end of this term and the party’s candidate for Hunter is five-time Olympic shooter Daniel Repacholi, who works in heavy equipment supply and repair.

Mr Repacholi said “coal certainly has a future here while people want to buy it in the export market”. He welcomes the take-up of renewables as an exciting development but says governments need to prepare workers and their families for any changes and to provide incentives for businesses to invest in training.

“The current government hasn’t done that,” he said. “To lose 143,000 trainees and apprentices since the Liberal-Nationals came to power is absolutely disgusting. How can you trust a government that’s cut that much and will only keep cutting?”