Greens call for coal royalties trust fund

GREENS candidate Sue Abbott is calling for a ten-year state investment which would see 20 percent of coal royalties put back into the Upper Hunter as part of a ‘Coal Community and Environment Trust.’

Ms Abbott said the trust will help diversify the local economy and prepare the Upper Hunter for a post-coal future.

“We have a very small window of opportunity to move away from the fossil fuel industry,” Ms Abbott said.

“By pretending that coal has a long time here in the Upper Hunter for decades to come, is being less than honest,” she said.

“Coal miners know too, that coal will be finishing in the not too distant future and this will help. We need this transition trust fund,” she said.

“We have your backs, the mining bosses and the Coalition do not,” said Ms Abbott.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Greens are committed to seeing 20 percent of coal royalties reinvested back into coal dependent communities by 2030.

“If that is done between now and 2030, there will be between 1.3 and 1.5 billion dollars available in the trust fund,” Mr. Shoebridge said.

“By 2030 there needs to be a diversified economy in the Upper Hunter,” he said.

“Is the change in the economy going to be tough? Yeah it’s going to be tough. Are there going to be people who are facing the prospect of seeing their job in the coal industry coming to and end? Absolutely. That’s why politics needs to step up, to be honest and come up with some solutions and put some money on the table and do it over a ten year timeframe so we can actually build those jobs,” he said.

Mr. Shoebridge and Ms Abbott said part of the Coal Community and Environment Trust should be used to rebuild TAFE. 

“The whole purpose of this trust is to be community led . . . where the money is allocated, that needs to be locally led,” Mr. Shoebridge said.

“When you get out in the community in the Upper Hunter, one of the first things they say is ‘TAFE is crucial’. There’s a lot of reasonable anger about the downgrading of TAFE in places like Scone and that must be an urgent and immediate priority for the allocation,” he said.

“It has been a massive blow to my local community and the whole of the electorate to lose Scone TAFE,” Ms Abbott said.

“We know that 26 percent of the tradies in New South Wales work here and to think that the Coalition has abandoned them by selling this off to private ventures is just disgraceful. We know we need TAFE and other education training institutions to train and prepare for our future post-coal,” Ms Abbott said.

For more information on where candidates stand: Voting 101: Upper Hunter by-election.