Manufacturing jobs are the heart of regional Queensland. There is no better example than the aluminium industry, which directly employs 3,000 hardworking, highly skilled Australians in good regional jobs. Almost 900 of those jobs are in Gladstone at the Boyne Island smelter.
\nAustralia has a long and proud history as an aluminium producer and I want to see the aluminium industry grow, not shipped offshore because of the energy policy mess created by Scott Morrison.
\nAustralia is the world\u2019s largest producer of bauxite and a substantial producer of alumina. We have been producing aluminium for well over 50 years, but Australia now only has four aluminium smelters left. These smelters are crucial employers in regional centres and produce a strategically and economically vital metal.
\nAluminium isn\u2019t just another industry, It\u2019s strategically important in sectors like construction and transport.
\nThrough their inability to deliver a national energy policy, the Liberal National Government has placed the future of Australia\u2019s aluminium industry at risk.
\nSince the Government\u2019s energy crisis began in 2015, wholesale electricity prices have increased by 158 per cent. In the months since the embattled Energy Minister Angus Taylor took office, wholesale prices have risen by 20 per cent.
\nRio Tinto, which has a stake in three out of four Australian smelters, has said Australian energy costs \u201care very, very high by any kind of global standard\u201d, and as a result, \u201cthe current situation is not sustainable.\u201d
\nProducers have been warning for years that the price and reliability of our energy system isn\u2019t good enough to sustain a local industry able to compete internationally. Boyne Island has previously had to cut staff and production during periods when power prices have become unsustainably high. There continues to be a risk of plant closures.
\nInternationally, it is clear that the future of the industry is in low carbon aluminium, supported by renewable power, a future the Liberal Nationals are dead against.
\nThe future of the aluminium sector is threatened by the LNP\u2019s big headed refusal to accept a future driven by new technologies and new opportunities.
\nIts strength, durability, flexibility, corrosion resistance and the fact it is 100 percent recyclable, makes aluminium the perfect metal to support not only the industrial economies of the last century, but the clean energy economies of the future.
\nLabor is calling for the Government to finally get its act together, deliver a national energy policy that supports new investment in clean affordable, reliable energy, and support a crucial sector that their incompetence has put at risk.
\nThey need to do this urgently, before we see any of our four aluminium smelters close. \u00a0If there are any further closures in this important industry, the blame will lie with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manufacturing jobs are the heart of regional Queensland. There is no better example than the aluminium industry, which directly employs 3,000 hardworking, highly skilled Australians in good regional jobs. Almost 900 of those jobs are in Gladstone at the Boyne Island smelter. Australia has a long and proud history as an aluminium producer and I … Continue reading “LNP THREATENS ALUMINIUM JOBS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}