Three years after heated clashes between Adani coalmine supporters and environmental groups created a lingering climate of “fear and scepticism”, regional Australians living in areas with economic ties to fossil fuel industries now overwhelmingly acknowledge the inevitability of the energy transition, a landmark new report says.
But they need an “honest discussion” from governments to support their communities on the path to net-zero.
The report, What Regions Need, is the result of a year’s qualitative research consulting local workers, civic leaders, unions, the energy sector and others by the chief executive of the not-for-profit organisation The Next Economy, Dr Amanda Cahill.
It argues for a national plan for net zero with detailed targets and policy settings, and the formation of national and regional transition authorities to help strengthen and diversify regional economies.
Cahill describes a significant shift in public sentiment in places like regional Queensland and the New South Wales Hunter valley, as well as a renewed willingness from industry, energy companies and environmental groups to engage after the bruising experiences of the last federal election campaign.
“When we started our consultations two years ago, most [regional] people were questioning the whole concept of the energy transition,” Cahill said.
“Now people see that things are changing quickly, with early closure announcements for coal plants, our trading partners increasing their climate ambitions and the rapid expansion of renewable energy projects across the country. They want to see a clear plan and support so they can manage these changes.”
Cahill, a Churchill scholar whose work focuses on helping regional economies affected by transition in the energy sector, said an “overwhelming majority” of participants in the group’s engagement activities now acknowledge the inevitability of decarbonisation.
The Next Economy held a summit in Gladstone last year after hearing concerns from industries, energy companies, local and state governments that they felt unable to have an “open and productive discussion” about the need to plan for a transition.
“The hesitancy across all groups stemmed from violent scenes that occurred in central Queensland in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election, when supporters of the Adani Carmichael coalmine led by a group of conservative politicians clashed with environmental protesters.
“Two years later, industry and energy players did not want ‘to be seen to be getting political’, government employees were concerned about ‘keeping their jobs’, and union and environmental groups did not want to be responsible for ‘a repeat of what happened in 2019’,” the report said.
“The risks taken by some participants to attend, let alone participate in this conversation in central Queensland cannot be overstated and pre-summit meetings with potential participants were dominated by fear and scepticism.”
At the summit, the Queensland government-owned Stanwell Corporation, the state’s largest power generator, announced plans to transition to renewables and curtail coal plants. The chief executive of Stanwell, Richard van Breda, resigned a few days later.
In the longer term, the report says the summit gave industries and local governments confidence to act. And conversations in communities have now changed. The Queensland government, on the eve of an election, is promoting Gladstone as a potential “renewable energy powerhouse”.
Kahn Goodluck, a boilermaker and the acting mayor of Gladstone, said the community with a “proud industrial heritage” needed to plan and adapt for coming changes.
“We have some of the biggest industry players in the world but we can’t leave it to industry and business alone, we need government policies and investment that support success,” Goodluck said.
“Failure is not an option. Our workers and their families’ livelihoods depend on it.”
While sentiment about the inevitability of transition has shifted, workers remain concerned that new industries will develop in a way that affects their working conditions.
Participants at workshops cited the LNG boom during the last decade, where the rapid expansion of the industry created jobs but also created cost of living concerns, and, ultimately, left many locals in the lurch when construction ramped down and property prices collapsed.
Policy certainty, however, remains difficult while political discussion – and the messaging of some national political parties to regional people – remains fraught.
“We can no longer afford to avoid talking honestly and plainly about what the transition really means for everyday Australians, or to play political games with everyone’s future wellbeing and prosperity,” the report says.
“If we can bring people together around a clear vision, plan and targets, we are well placed to attract the investment needed to develop new skills and industries that will not only decarbonise our economy, but create thousands of new jobs and economic benefits for regional areas.
“We have everything we need to manage this change well. The only thing missing is clear and decisive leadership at a national level.”
