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Australian news, and some related international items

Largest coal mining union backs Labor’s Renewable Energy Target

TONY MAHER: We’ve got to face the reality in domestic coal-fired power. The companies, led by AGL and Energy Australia, have announced that they will all close their fleet by 2050, one by one. So – and they won’t be building other ones to replace them, so we have to deal with that…….
TONY MAHER: Renewables are winning the investment race. And the introduction of battery storage, cheap battery storage in homes is very attractive to consumers and they’ll vote with their feet and you’d be a mug not to see that

Why has Australia’s largest coal mining union backed Labor’s Renewable Energy Target?  Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC TV 7.30 Report  Broadcast: 28/07/2015 Reporter: Matt Peacock

Australian’s largest coal mining and energy union was the surprise backer of Labor’s 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target at the party’s national conference, so what moved them to support it when Prime Minister Tony Abbott claims there will be a massive cost for consumers?

Transcript

SABRA LANE, PRESENTER: Endorsement of the latest push for a substantial increase in Australia’s Renewable Energy Target is coming from an unlikely quarter. Australia’s largest coal mining and energy union, the CFMEU, says it’s inevitable that many of the country’s coal-fired generators and mines will close and not be replaced, with thousands losing their jobs as a consequence.

But the union support for Labor’s renewable energy target has come at a price. In a surprise move at the ALP conference on the weekend, the union backed Labor’s 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target in return for an unprecedented assistance package. Matt Peacock reports……….


MATT PEACOCK: But the unexpected seconder of Labor’s renewable energy target was the head of Australia’s largest coal mining and energy union, Tony Maher.

TONY MAHER: We’ve got to face the reality in domestic coal-fired power. The companies, led by AGL and Energy Australia, have announced that they will all close their fleet by 2050, one by one. So – and they won’t be building other ones to replace them, so we have to deal with that…….

TONY MAHER: Renewables are winning the investment race. And the introduction of battery storage, cheap battery storage in homes is very attractive to consumers and they’ll vote with their feet and you’d be a mug not to see that……….
MATT PEACOCK: Tony Maher’s price to support the Labor resolution is high. He wants more than the dole for his displaced members.

But, I mean, a lot of your members are paid 100 grand or more.

TONY MAHER: Lots of money. Yeah, worth every cent. And that’s how they did it in Germany – it was income support or early retirement and it all costs money. And what we want the – the – Labor in government to do is to provide the funding, to do the calculations, to establish the agency and to tell us how they’re gonna solve the problem…….. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4282591.htm

August 5, 2015 - Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy

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