Seven years after the closure of one of the town’s largest employers, local Latrobe City Mayor Dale Harriman says government support has been exhausted, and the regional centre is still grappling with unemployment and a sluggish economy.
The City of Latrobe is home to over 70,000 residents and is located 150 kilometres east of Melbourne
It is the centre of Victoria’s electricity industry with its world-class brown coal reserves, and several large coal-fired power plants.
The City used to be a thriving community; however, things changed with the shutdown of the 1,600-megawatt Hazelwood Power Station in 2017 after 50 years of operation.
At its peak, Hazelwood supplied around 25 percent of Victoria’s electricity demand and 5 percent of Australia’s.
In November 2016, Hazelwood’s owner, Engie, a French energy company, made a surprise announcement that it would decommission the station by March 2017 as part of its strategy to transition away from coal power generation.
Consistent Work Hard to Find
Seven years after Hazelwood’s closure, the City still struggles to recover from the aftermath.Latrobe’s Harriman told The Epoch Times that the shutdown greatly impacted the local workforce, with many residents still unable to find new consistent work.
Specifically, he said out of the previous Hazelwood labour force, only 100 workers were transferred to other power stations.
“We had over 1,000 direct employees at the Hazelwood Power Station, probably another 1,000 employed as contractors, and then probably 3,000-4,000 employed in support companies,” Harriman said.
“That’s the hardest area that’s been hit there. You might say 3-400 of those guys have been re-employed, [as] direct employees, and a lot now are on casual work.
“They'll go and do maybe three or four months work while it’s there, and then they’re out looking for another job. It’s been hard on a lot of the workers that they haven’t got that continual, ongoing employment anymore.”
The mayor also revealed that among those employed directly by Hazelwood, 30 percent retired after it was closed, and around 40 percent stayed locally and found a mix of full- part-time or casual work.
Population Decline
Apart from the job losses, the City also suffered a significant decline in population.Harriman estimated that more than 2,000 people had left the City after Hazelwood’s shutdown, compared to Latrobe’s population of over 75,000 in 2018.
Government’s Support Is Ineffective: Mayor
In 2016, the former Andrews Labor government announced a $266 million funding package to prop up the local economy and help affected workers transition to new jobs.This included $174 million for infrastructure projects, $50 million for an Economic Growth Zone, $10 million for local businesses, and $22 million for workers and enterprises affected by the closure of Hazelwood.
The state government also established the Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA) to facilitate the transition of Hazelwood workers and their families.
When asked about the funding, Harriman said the government’s bookkeeping showed that most of the money had been spent.
“I believe we had about $180 million spent on livability aspects, which were things like a new performing arts centre, upgrades to pools, basketball stadiums, upgrades to football and cricket grounds,” he said.
Regarding direct jobs, the mayor said a lot of the funding went into the wages of the LVA.
According to Harriman, in the first one or two years, the LVA was providing jobs for many Hazelwood workers around Australia, not locally.
“But in the last two to three years, … basically all the money that they’ve spent has just been on paying the [LVA] employees to stay here,” he said.
“Just paying the wages, and very little went back into job connectivity and community service.
“So, while they may have spent the money, it hasn’t been well spent.”
The LVA has since closed down.
LVA Is A Failure: Shadow Energy Minister
Victoria’s shadow energy minister, David Davis, told The Epoch Times that the state government’s support measures for Latrobe had failed.“Labor’s Latrobe Valley Authority was an incompetent failure, failing to deliver the support and jobs that were promised,” he said.
Davis also criticised the Labor government’s energy policies, including its plan to revive the State Electricity Commission (SEC), a government-owned electricity company, to facilitate the renewable energy transition.
“Labor have botched their policy on brown coal in the Latrobe Valley, costing jobs locally and leaving Victorians with higher energy prices and uncertain and intermittent energy,” he said.
“Labor promised it was bringing back the SEC. Nothing could be further from the truth. The SEC previously employed 23,000 people, and yet the Allan Labor government’s ‘SEC’ employs just a single staffer in the Latrobe Valley.”
Council Is Open to All Forms of Energy: Mayor
Harriman said his council supported any form of government-backed investment that could reinvigorate the community, including nuclear.“As a council, we’re open to all power, all forms of power, [and] energy, as long as the community is happy with it,” he said.
Regarding the federal opposition’s proposal to build a nuclear power station in the Latrobe Valley, the mayor said the city council would like to see the community properly engaged and find out whether the people want nuclear power in the region.
“We know the unions–the mining and energy union–are supportive of it [nuclear],” he said.
“We’ve got lot of loud voices from minority groups against it.
“We’ve got a lot of loud voices from minority groups in support of it, and then we’ve got a lot of the population just saying, give us the facts that we can make an informed decision.”
