On Friday, Peter Dutton said the Hunter was “done”.

A few days later, he claimed that under Labor there were no “long-term prospects of new industry coming in”.

And yet his supposed “plan” to bring in new industry kicks off in the mid-2040s with a risky, expensive nuclear energy power plant proposition.

Communities like the Hunter didn’t ask for nuclear. They are demanding action now: to diversify the economy to protect and create good blue-collar jobs for when ageing coal-fired power stations close and international demand for coal declines. And Labor is delivering with the biggest pro-manufacturing package in Australian history.

The Albanese Government has been steadily implementing the $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan. And putting the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund in place to make sure that products invented in Australia are manufactured in Australia. 

Focusing on critical minerals processing here in Australia, building new electricity generation and transmission for reliable and low-cost electricity for households to back current manufacturing and to position regions like the Hunter for new production and jobs in the future.

It’s our plan to win investment for Australian industrial heartlands and secure good jobs for Australians who live in our industrial and mining regions.  

Already we have made hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy and industrial investments in the Hunter so far including: 

• Supporting Australian-made aluminium, through a $2 billion aluminium production credit that has secured the future of Tomago Aluminium and creates and protects five thousand jobs in the Hunter. 
• Securing the Hunter’s jobs and energy future by taking forward the Hunter Offshore Wind Zone – with licensing conditions to make sure supply chains, industries and workers benefit.
• Liddell Battery, a 500 MW, two-hour duration, grid scale battery to be located on the former Liddell Power Station (supported through Capacity Investment Scheme and ARENA Advancing Renewables, 150 workers through construction, 95% steel sourced locally). 
• Working with the State Government and through the newly legislated Net Zero Economy Authority to win investment into the region for new industries and jobs. One of the Authority’s priority regions is the Hunter.

And a re-elected Albanese Government will provide $500 million for capital costs for new steel fabrication capacity for renewable energy infrastructure through the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund. This funding will initially go towards fabrication facilities ensuring Australian steel for Australian wind towers. 

We will increase local steel requirements for renewable energy infrastructure – like wind towers – as local industry capability increases, so places like the Hunter can take advantage of these increasing opportunities.

The Albanese Labor Government has also made major commitments (almost $3 billion) to road, bridges and infrastructure in the Hunter – to get people home quicker and safer and to help businesses be more productive.

Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for A Future Made in Australia and Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres:

The Albanese Labor Government is creating jobs now. Delivering new electricity generation now. Building new transmission capability that we need to secure the future of Tomago Aluminium now. 

This is the real work about delivering jobs and investment and economic opportunity. Leaving these issues to 2045, with a risky nuclear energy solution that only deters real investment and produces electricity that's too expensive for Australia, is no solution for the challenges of now and the next few decades. 

Peter Dutton claims to care about the Hunter’s urgent needs but then kicks the can down the road to 2045. He’s got no real practical solutions for the Hunter.

Every time I come to the Hunter I meet with real firms in energy, manufacturing, mining and engineering who are working hard to secure real investment and good new jobs – like the leaders and workers in Ampcontrol who I met with just last Friday. They employ 900 Hunter Valley locals in good jobs and 130 apprentices – all of them need a government that backs them for the future.

We're going to continue with our shoulder to the wheel, but we won't be like Peter Dutton taking the Hunter down in the process.

TUESDAY, 8 APRIL 2025