Unemployment Persists 7 Years After Hazelwood’s Closure

A sign outside the now closed Hazelwood Power Station in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia on March 31, 2017. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

People are still unemployed seven years after the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria was shut down, an Australian parliamentary inquiry has heard.

At the recent hearing on establishing civilian nuclear power in the country, the Latrobe City Council’s mayor, Dale Harriman, revealed his community had not recovered from the closure of the coal-fired power station.

The Hazelwood Power Station was built between the 1960s and 1970s with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts.

The station used to supply around 25 percent of Victoria’s electricity demand and 5 percent of Australia’s.

In 2016, Hazelwood’s owner, Engie, a French energy company, announced that it would close the station by 2027, citing its commitment to transition away from coal power generation.

At the time, Hazelwood employed 750 people, including 450 employees and 300 contractors.

The station was officially shut down on March 31, 2017, when all eight generators went offline.

The Hazelwood Power Station is seen in Hazelwood, Australia, on March 31, 2017. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Population and Job Losses

Harriman said the shutdown dealt a devastating blow to the local community in terms of jobs, housing values, retail shopping, and living quality.

“It has had a massive impact on our community, and nothing has been done to reinvigorate those jobs,” he told the Select Committee on Nuclear Energy.

“We’ve lost a lot of those workers and their families. A lot of them are still unemployed.”

The mayor noted that while unions had stepped in to create some jobs, they were not enough for all the workers.

The shutdown of Hazelwood also affected other supporting industries in the region.

“We’ve got a lot of support industries for engineering, machining, and hydraulics that were set up to support the power stations,” Harriman said.

“When Hazelwood closed, we lost 25 percent of that work, and a lot of those businesses have struggled to find work since. That’s had a flow-on impact on those supporting jobs in the community.”

Due to Hazelwood’s closure, the major said the town of Morwell, where the station was located, was reduced from a thriving community with 18,000 people around 10-15 years ago, to a struggling one with 13,000 to 14,000 residents.

Workers leave Hazelwood Power Station after their final shift in Hazelwood, Australia on Mar. 31, 2017. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Steven Piasente, the CEO of the Latrobe City Council, said the shutdown resulted in a $2 million (US$1.28 million) loss in revenue for the Council, which he said could not be offset by other sources. A loss in council revenue will usually mean less funds for services.

Pointing to the Bega dairy processing facility that employed 200 workers in Latrobe, he said the Council would need to create 14 such facilities to cover the loss of revenue.

“We’ve had to cut back on capital expenditure for the community. Our service deliveries remain relatively the same, but we’re not able to expand that,” Piasente said.

Latrobe Earmarked for ‘Plug and Play’ Nuclear Plant

After the federal opposition announced its nuclear strategy in June 2024, the Latrobe Valley was chosen as one of seven potential sites to set up a nuclear power plant.

As part of the strategy, the opposition intends to “plug and play” a nuclear facility into existing infrastructure, and repurpose the previous labour force.

This is possible because the only difference between a nuclear facility and coal-fired power plant is how steam is generated to spin turbines to generate electricity. All existing infrastructure can be re-used.

At earlier hearings, nuclear experts from Canada and the United States have also backed the transition of coal-fired workers to nuclear facilities.

Heather Hoff, a former nuclear reactor operator and the co-founder of the California-based advocacy group Mothers of Nuclear, revealed that most of her former colleagues did not have experience or knowledge about the nuclear industry before receiving training at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

Community Open to Nuclear Power

Meanwhile, Mayor Harriman said Latrobe residents were open to the idea of a nuclear power station in the area.

He said the Council ran a community consultation, which was attended by about 70-80 people, about three months ago, and only seven openly opposed the facility.

Harriman also noted that rising living costs were an issue, and that people desired to learn more about the opposition’s nuclear plan.

“There’s a was a real desire for more information on it, [and] there is a supportive backbone out there,” he said.

In addition, the mayor said his community would support policies that helped transition local workers.

“I talk regularly to a number of coal power station workers. They’re excited by this idea that they’re actually going to have a future,” he said.

“When Hazelwood closed, the thought of no future and nowhere to work was palpable in the area, and it had a depressive effect on the community.

“The discussion that nuclear is there, and it gives an option to our coal-fired power station workers. They’re very supportive of it.”