AWU gets real
THE Australian Workers Union has called for the aluminium industry to be exempted from the renewable energy target, a move that will increase pressure on Labor to negotiate a bipartisan deal with the Coalition on changes to the scheme.
AWU national secretary Scott McDine warned that the RET maintained in its current form would lead to thousands of jobs shifting overseas with no environmental gain.
The AWU’s aluminium delegates conference will today pass a formal resolution calling for a full exemption from the scheme for the industry and for the deadline for reaching the 41,0000-gigawatt large-scale renewable energy target to be pushed out from 2020 to 2022.
The AWU’s call for an exemption for aluminium echoes those from the industry and 25 Coalition backbench MPs. The industry estimates the costs of the RET at $80 million a year.
Victorian Liberal MP Dan Tehan, a leader of the Coalition backbench group seeking an exemption for aluminium, said the industry should be excluded because of the risk to jobs.
“It is now beholden on both the government and the opposition in true bipartisanship to ensure that the future of aluminium smelting jobs are not jeopardised by the RET,’’ Mr Tehan said.
Labor agrees to talks with government over RET aluminium concessionsTHE AUSTRALIANSEPTEMBER 18, PrintSid Maher
National Affairs EditorCanberrahttps://plus.google.com/113238264937713210151 LABOR appears open to negotiations with the Coalition on the treatment of aluminium in the renewable energy target as Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has seized on a union call for a full exemption to demand Labor choose backing workers or the Greens. Mr Macfarlane wrote yesterday to opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler to formally extend an offer to meet to discuss the RET after the Australian Workers Union called for a full exemption for aluminium under the target.