Post by Michael Wilbur-Ham on May 2, 2013 18:14:40 GMT 10
In 2012 the Point Henry aluminium smelter in Geelong was given a $40 million dollar rescue package by the Victorian state Liberal government and the federal Labor government.
This is an old plant that was struggling to be competitive, and the high Australian dollar didn't help. Aluminium smelters are usually on long term contracts gaining huge discounts for power from the world's most polluting coal power stations (Victoria's coal is much wetter than most coal, so it produces more carbon for a given power output than other coal plants).
With climate change you would think that government would welcome the closing of an old plant and the reduction of emissions.
But the workers are part of a strong union - so federal Labor had to protect them - and this is big business - so State Liberals wanted it to keep going as well.
The condition of the rescue package was the plant continue operation for 2 years. That is all.
When the rescue package was announced it did make the ABC Melbourne TV news (lead story!), but (from memory) it only got a small mention on about page 15 of the Herald Sun, and the story wasn't covered by The Age at all.
There are about 500 jobs at the plant, so the major parties are putting in about $40,000 per worker per year to keep this going.
How many businesses which have a potential future could use some assistance in a time of difficulty? They don't get anything, yet this, probably the most carbon intensive polluting industry that there is, gets massive assistance.
Today The Age online reports that the future of the plant is still under threat - Future of Alcoa's Geelong plant in doubt.
So the $40,000 per worker for 2 years seems to be rather a poor investment.
OK, pretty much everyone knows that the Victorian Liberal government has no concerns about climate change. But federal Labor pretends to care. What a great example to show that when it comes to the crunch climate change doesn't matter, financial responsibility doesn't matter, but throwing money after dead jobs will be done (if you are part of the right union).
This is an old plant that was struggling to be competitive, and the high Australian dollar didn't help. Aluminium smelters are usually on long term contracts gaining huge discounts for power from the world's most polluting coal power stations (Victoria's coal is much wetter than most coal, so it produces more carbon for a given power output than other coal plants).
With climate change you would think that government would welcome the closing of an old plant and the reduction of emissions.
But the workers are part of a strong union - so federal Labor had to protect them - and this is big business - so State Liberals wanted it to keep going as well.
The condition of the rescue package was the plant continue operation for 2 years. That is all.
When the rescue package was announced it did make the ABC Melbourne TV news (lead story!), but (from memory) it only got a small mention on about page 15 of the Herald Sun, and the story wasn't covered by The Age at all.
There are about 500 jobs at the plant, so the major parties are putting in about $40,000 per worker per year to keep this going.
How many businesses which have a potential future could use some assistance in a time of difficulty? They don't get anything, yet this, probably the most carbon intensive polluting industry that there is, gets massive assistance.
Today The Age online reports that the future of the plant is still under threat - Future of Alcoa's Geelong plant in doubt.
So the $40,000 per worker for 2 years seems to be rather a poor investment.
OK, pretty much everyone knows that the Victorian Liberal government has no concerns about climate change. But federal Labor pretends to care. What a great example to show that when it comes to the crunch climate change doesn't matter, financial responsibility doesn't matter, but throwing money after dead jobs will be done (if you are part of the right union).