The Green Jobs Illawarra initiative will be revived five years after it petered out, and is likely to have a strong focus on energy generation this time around.
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The initiative, which is being driven by the South Coast Labor Council, has secured Wollongong MP Paul Scully and Greens Upper House MP David Shoebridge as its co-chairs, and is set to be launched next week.
In its first incarnation the Green Jobs Illawarra project came under the auspices of Regional Development Australia, at a time when carbon pricing and its effect on employment were the hotted issues in the region.
But funding petered out and the project faded about five years ago.
South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris said technological advances meant the time was right to relaunch with a focus on energy.
“We know that energy policy is central to our future, both economically and environmentally,” he said.
“It’s also clear that since our last attempt at Green Jobs Illawarra technology has now outstripped both politics and ideology.
“The fact is, if we do not take advantage of the new and emerging forms of power generation and the advances that have been made, we will be letting down the whole region.
“The reality is that the current reliance on a single form, largely, of power generation is unsustainable and costly.
“The costs are being felt greater by the working people of this region – and by industry, which makes it a double whammy for jobs. We can do better.”
He said they were starting “from scratch” to re-establish the project, bringing together relevant parties. Seeking new funding would follow.
“The initiative will be finishing what we started, and finishing the job this time,” Mr Rorris said.
Mr Shoebridge called creating jobs from the challenge of climate change “the challenge of the 21st Century”.
“With its proud history of innovative engineering, its knowledge base at Wollongong university and its skilled workforce, the Illawarra is primed to take advantage of the rising green economy,” he said.
“It's the job of politics to ensure the promise of green jobs is made a reality by working for strategic investment, strong public enterprises and policy settings that reward low carbon and high employment industries.”
Next week will start a consultative process which will determine the name, focus and orientation of the project.
For Mr Scully, re-establishing Green Jobs Illawarra was a promise he made during his 2016 election campaign. He was not available for comment on Thursday.
