The Greens are calling for a ten-year state commitment to the Upper Hunter and other coal dependent communities to invest coal royalties back into the community and create a strong and prosperous post coal future.
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For decades, the Upper Hunter and other coal dependent communities have created enormous wealth for multinationals and for the rest of the state through profits and coal royalties.
The Greens believe as the coal industry declines a fair share of this wealth needs to be returned to rebuild their economies and repair their local environment.
Earlier today in Ravensworth, Greens candidate for the Upper Hunter Sue Abbott was joined by Greens MP David Shoebridge to unveil their ten-year transition plan to support people working in fossil fuel industries.
"Today the Greens announce our policy for the Upper Hunter Campaign," said Greens MP David Shoebridge.
"A long-standing policy to ensure that the short-term health of coal that taken out of this community is invested back into our communities, so that the upper hunter and other coal based communities can have a prosperous post coal future."
The Greens believe that transition to 100% renewable energy and the creation of the Hunter Renewable Energy Zone will provide opportunities, and the party will be proactive in supporting these communities.
"We all know the truth, that there is a set time for the coal industry and it is likely that the rest of the world will be moving forward when we don't."
The NSW Government currently receives between $1.5 and $2 billion in royalties from the coal sector each year and the Greens will use these funds to support the transition of workers currently employed in the coal industry.
"Our proposal is that a proportion of the wealth generated in the Upper Hunter will come back to the Upper Hunter, to invest in TAFE, critical new industries and to build the renewable energy revolution that the Upper Hunter can be a part of," Mr Shoebridge continued.
Greens Upper Hunter Candidate Ms Sue Abbott is passionate about the environment, education and jobs and says the Upper Hunter has a small window of opportunity to move away from the fossil fuel industry that coal is through the Greens Transition Trust Fund.
"By pretending that coal has a long time here in the Upper Hunter for decades to come is being less than honest and it is not helpful," Ms Abbott stated.
"Coal miners know too that coal will be finishing in the not too distant future and this will help, we need this transition trust fund."
Late last month, the Scone TAFE sold for $4 million to Racing NSW under the Coalition.
"I come from the Scone community and it has been a massive blow to my local community and the whole electorate to lose Scone TAFE," Ms Abbott continued.
"We know that 26% of trades people in NSW work here, and we know that the Coalition has abandoned them by selling this off to private venture is disgraceful."
The initial focus of the trust will be:
- Direct investment in regional TAFE campuses in the Hunter Valley and the Illawarra region, with a focus on fee-free green technology and environmental restoration courses, and the immediate re-establishment of a fully functioning TAFE in Scone;
- A rewilding program to deliver large scale reforestation in the Hunter Valley to restore some of the direct environmental damage caused by more than a century of coal mining
- A commitment to new public jobs in education, environmental management and renewable energy in coal communities to replace and improve on the jobs lost with the end of coal. This can now leverage on cheap renewable energy as the REX rolls out and;
- A regional industries incentive scheme to expand existing successful agricultural, tourism and technology industries in coal communities
