Thursday, 24 March 2022

Latrobe Valley

Ms SHING (Eastern Victoria) (10:31): Today I want to talk about the long-term efforts that are being undertaken and that will need to be continued for transition and development across the Latrobe Valley. Since Engie and Mitsui announced with only six months notice that production at the Hazelwood power plant would discontinue we have seen an unprecedented investment from the state government of more than $2 billion across the Latrobe Valley region. This has been necessary not only to provide assistance with retraining, assistance with recognition of existing skills and access to pathways for training and education but also in building up community facilities, making sure that we can upgrade and indeed build new schools, as well as making sure that early learning and development are taken care of and that we are also looking after the most vulnerable members of our community across the Latrobe Valley.

The work goes on, but it is also important that while we acknowledge the efforts of the Latrobe Valley Authority, established by Gippslanders for Gippslanders, we seek to ensure that the commonwealth government, those sitting in Canberra, also pull their weight. It has been an absolute disgrace and indeed a disservice to people of the Latrobe Valley that the commonwealth government has failed to put its money where its mouth is and has failed to invest in a long-term future for the Latrobe Valley, and I would seek that everyone uses the best pressure that they can possibly use to make sure that we get the funding that this region deserves.