THE State Government says the Latrobe Valley can expect an increase in job opportunities as it prepares for the possible April closure of the Hazelwood power plant, but has provided little detail about how this would occur.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Industry and Employment Minister Wade Noonan visited Morwell on Monday in the wake of media reports Hazelwood owner Engie was planning to discuss station closure options at its October board meeting.
As Engie maintained this week that no decision had been made about the future of the plant, Ms D’Ambrosio said the government would not wait for an official announcement from the French executives before moving towards a transition.
Spruiking the government’s previously-announced $40 million transition package for the Valley, $10 million of which is an ‘economic facilitation fund’ designed to expand existing businesses and attract new jobs, Mr Noonan said the government was on the verge of “doubling the number of investment specialists in this region to help grow the economy, and diversify it obviously as well”.
Mr Noonan said whatever the outcome in relation to Hazelwood, new job announcements would be made by the end of the year.
When questioned about future job opportunities for Hazelwood’s 800-plus employees, Mr Noonan said it was important to take everyone’s situation into account.
“For some people in long-term employment who might be beyond a certain age, they may not be looking for new opportunities beyond the job that they’ve got,” Mr Noonan said.
He said there were very few people in this day and age “that stay in one job for life, or stay in one sector for life” and that the circumstances for every individual employee would be different.
“Our determination is to try and grow jobs, high value jobs, the jobs to generally give people the maximum opportunity to transition if they want to into other employment if they so choose to do,” Mr Noonan said.
He said the construction, retail, health, manufacturing, education and training job sectors would continue to grow in the region, and the government was hoping to “accelerate” the growth through its $10 million investment so “people can be trained locally to be placed in work locally”.
The ministers did not comment on how the remainder of the $40 million transition package would be spent, but assured residents the government was being “very careful and cautious in relation to listening to the community about where the spend goes”.
