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A miner’s union is calling for the establishment of a statutory authority to oversee the transition from an “inevitable” shutdown of coal-fired power stations in Queensland.
The CFMEU Mining and Energy division is calling on the state government for a new Workers Future Authority – a statutory body that is independent from government departments and receives resourcing from the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
The authority’s role would be to manage industry transformation and workers transitioning to alternate employment.
It would also be tasked with identifying and attracting new industries to impacted regions and identify areas for skills development, training, and government investment.
Coal provides thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the Central Queensland economy, so the union representing the industry is calling on the State Government to establish a statutory authority to oversee the transformation of the sector.
The âWorkers Future Authorityâ, as the CFMEU has dubbed it, would be independent of government departments to manage industry transformation and workers transitioning to alternate employment.
With the transition to renewable energy, the CFMEU said the âWorkers Future Authorityâ would identify and attract new industries to impacted regions and would identify areas for skills development, training, and government investment.
Central Queensland has both solar and wind farms established and proposed, plus Gladstone has been identified as a hydrogen hub, on the back of its port, infrastructure, the Gladstone Hydrogen Ecosystem and Hydrogen Park Gladstone initiatives.