Workers in coal and gas-fired power plants with announced closure dates are assured of energy transition support measures like paid clean energy retraining, redeployment and financial assistance, following the Australian Senate’s passing of the Net Zero Economy Authority (NZEA) Bill 2024.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Authority will work with communities, state, territory and local governments, regional bodies, unions, industry, investors, First Nations groups and others to help them take advantage of net zero economy opportunities.
“It will coordinate with them through this massive change and facilitate the jobs and benefits of the economic transformation that come with moving to net zero, whether it is retraining and redeploying workers in traditional energy industries or cutting red tape in clean energy investment,” Albanese said.
“These Bills represent our commitment to ensuring no region, no community and no worker is left behind. This is about building the industries and creating the jobs that underpin our future prosperity.”
The Authority will deliver economic development support to communities where closing coal and gas-fired plants are located, while driving new jobs and renewable investment projects in places like the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Gladstone in Queensland, Collie in Western Australia and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said it will be a one-stop shop for new industries coming to regional Australia to create jobs and investment and for the workers already there to prepare for the jobs for the future.
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president Michele O’Neil said the benefits will support Australian energy workers and communities to continue powering the economy for generations to come.
The NZEA will oversee Australia’s transition to net zero by 2050, with the country also targeting a 43% reduction of emissions by 2030, relative to a 2005 baseline.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.