Union movement calls for $1bn fund for industrial uses of renewable energy and carbon-neutral projects
Australian unions are concerned the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission’s focus on gas is too narrow to achieve the energy transformation needed for sustainable manufacturing, Michele O’Neil said.
The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions made the comments on Monday when launching a policy paper on creating jobs through free childcare, subsidies for training places, and more investment in infrastructure and manufacturing.
And although the union movement has made its pitch for how best to recover 660,000 jobs lost between February and June, O’Neil has ruled out tradeoffs in industrial relations working groups in return for the government meeting its demands.
The ACTU paper calls for the government to develop a sustainable manufacturing sector by maximising Australian-made content in infrastructure and public sector procurement, accelerated depreciation for large gas and electricity users to upgrade equipment, and zero-interest loans for renewable energy developments with a direct link to manufacturing.
It also calls for a $1bn fund to invest in “manufacturing-tied renewable energy projects, new industrial uses of renewable energy” and carbon-neutral manufacturing projects.
O’Neil said the policy would address the “high cost of energy and
challenge how we move to more renewable sources that work for
energy-intensive industries, particularly heavy manufacturing”.The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions made the comments on Monday when launching a policy paper on creating jobs through free childcare, subsidies for training places, and more investment in infrastructure and manufacturing.
And although the union movement has made its pitch for how best to recover 660,000 jobs lost between February and June, O’Neil has ruled out tradeoffs in industrial relations working groups in return for the government meeting its demands.
The ACTU paper calls for the government to develop a sustainable manufacturing sector by maximising Australian-made content in infrastructure and public sector procurement, accelerated depreciation for large gas and electricity users to upgrade equipment, and zero-interest loans for renewable energy developments with a direct link to manufacturing.
It also calls for a $1bn fund to invest in “manufacturing-tied renewable energy projects, new industrial uses of renewable energy” and carbon-neutral manufacturing projects.
Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work, which helped develop the policy, said there was a “growing consensus in the manufacturing sector that [renewable energy] is a huge new competitive advantage” for Australia’s domestic industry.
Stanford said the policy was estimated to leverage an additional 30% increase in investment in Australian manufacturing – or $12bn in capital spending over three years – and create 15,000 construction jobs and 100,000 manufacturing jobs.
Guardian Australia revealed in May that a leaked draft report by the commission’s manufacturing taskforce called for a massive expansion of the domestic gas industry – including opening fields and building hundreds of kilometres of pipelines – to boost manufacturing.
Paul Bastian, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and a member of the taskforce, rejected the overwhelming focus on gas as the path out of recession. In June the commission’s chair, Nev Power, claimed the document was a “very early draft” and “doesn’t reflect the views of the commission”.
Asked why the ACTU had not followed the commission’s lead in calling for a gas-lead recovery, O’Neil said it had spoken to its affiliates, which represent manufacturing workers, and concluded “you can’t have a narrow approach” to the economic recovery.
“We were concerned that [the commission’s] working party or taskforce was narrower than what was really needed, in terms of our energy needs and the energy transformation needed for a sustainable manufacturing industry.”
Stanford said it was “far-fetched” that gas infrastructure could solve the manufacturing sector’s energy problems, arguing it “hasn’t been a lack of gas production that has caused high prices and uncertain supply”.
Despite increasing gas production, increased gas exports have caused domestic price spikes.
On the cost of the ACTU’s proposals, O’Neil said there was “no way out” of the Covid-19 recession, already the largest since the Great Depression, without a “significant amount of government expenditure”.
She noted near-zero interest rates, explaining it was a “very beneficial time” for governments to make long-term investments – especially as the cost of inaction would be much greater.
Voters had rewarded the government when it introduced jobkeeper wage subsidies worth $70bn but initially estimated at $130bn, and there was “enormous public goodwill” and recognition the government does need to spend.
O’Neil said five industrial relations working groups between unions and employers have met just twice each and it was “too early” to identify any potential common ground.
The ACTU was determined that “no worker was worse off as a result of any proposals” – although the government has reserved the right to push on with a reform package even if no agreement is reached.
Asked if unions could make concessions in that process in return for government agreeing to its plans for job-creation, O’Neil replied: “No.”
Unions had put forward their “reconstruction plan” because it was good for workers, business and the economy, not as part of a “notion of a tradeoff”.
The potential to reform the Fair Work Act was “one very small thing” in comparison, she said.
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