Hunter Jobs Alliance
We caught up with Warrick Jordan, Co-ordinator for Hunter Jobs Alliance, about his work helping to retain and grow Hunter based industrial jobs in the clean energy economy, as well as effective planning and investment to manage economic change. Hunter Jobs Alliance won a $40,000 Groundswell grant in July 2021.
Members of the Hunter Jobs Alliance live and work on the land of the Wonnarua people.
What does the Hunter Jobs Alliance do and who is involved?
We’re an alliance of 9 unions, including the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union, and the nurses and teachers’ unions, and 4 environment groups including the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, and Lock the Gate.
“Our bread and butter is ensuring that as a region we are taking all the steps we need to adapt to the big structural changes around energy, for the benefit of the community and the environment.”
We were formed in November 2020. Our bread and butter is ensuring that as a region we are taking all the steps we need to adapt to the big structural changes around energy, for the benefit of the community and the environment. We have a really positive future, but as we’ve seen here and elsewhere, change doesn’t manage itself and so we need to be active to support workers and communities.
There’s a lot of opportunity for win-wins on climate and jobs, but we need to be active so the region benefits in the long run.
Can you tell us a bit about what’s happening in the Hunter region?
We have 4 coal fired power stations slated to close over the next 14 years, Australia’s largest energy user in Tomago Aluminium, a lot of manufacturing, and the world’s largest coal export port. Those industries support a lot of livelihoods here, but they are all facing structural changes and decarbonisation challenges.
“We have 4 coal fired power stations slated to close over the next 14 years, Australia’s largest energy user in Tomago Aluminium, a lot of manufacturing, and the world’s largest coal export port.”
We also have a lot of opportunities around new industries, particularly hydrogen, offshore wind, battery manufacturing and other manufacturing around renewables and decarbonised products.
The community generally and the business community in particular have really started to embrace this over the past 6 months or so, but it’s very early in the development of these industries. To be honest we’re in a bit of a race to lock in some of these opportunities, but if we can do that there will be a lot of good outcomes over coming years.
How are Hunter communities and workers feeling about a renewable energy transition?
It’s a big place with 600,000 people, with urban, rural, resource and heavy industry economies in different parts. The views are pretty diverse. At an overall regional level, the support for climate action is there and there’s a growing recognition around the economic change issues. At the same time though there are particular communities whose towns and livelihoods revolve heavily around coal mining in particular, as well as other heavy industries. There’s definitely concern there and it’s important we take that seriously.
“There are particular communities whose towns and livelihoods revolve heavily around coal mining in particular, as well as other heavy industries. There’s definitely concern there and it’s important we take that seriously.”
Why is it so important for climate action to come from unions and workers as opposed to your typical environmental activists?
In general terms, unfortunately our public debate is often defined by polarisation and a lot of the areas of agreement get lost in there. We see it here where the Hunter is treated as some type of abstract political theme park on climate change and mining, where it’s actually a real place with a lot of people trying to get grips with some tough issues.
“It’s really important that environmentalists, unionists, workers and other community members can identify common ground and work together.”
It’s really important that environmentalists, unionists, workers and other community members can identify common ground and work together. If we can walk the walk, and demonstrate the shared interests and the concrete practical responses, we can encourage and lead a better quality conversation where we get to grips with these issues, and that leaves our communities better off.
What have some of your achievements in recent months been?
In May the NSW Government committed to a $25m per year future fund sourced from coal royalties, and a statutory expert panel to direct the funding. We, and other locals, had advocated for a fund and a statutory body and it was great to see that commitment.
The Government has just put the enabling legislation on exhibition, and we were announced as the first appointment to the new Hunter Expert Panel. It’s a big step, and will give the region a focus for practical job creation, worker support, investment attraction and mine closure planning.
“It’s a big step, and will give the region a focus for practical job creation, worker support, investment attraction and mine closure planning.”
We’ve also just finished a large community engagement project with Hunter Renewal, one of our affiliates, where we spoke to 300 people across 5 workshops all over the region, about how they would like to see these future funds spent. We learnt a lot about locals being experts on their community, and generated some really sound proposals that we are confident will get a guernsey as the local future fund rolls out. There’s a great new report on our website, and we had 100 locals at the report launch in Singleton recently.
What are some of the lessons learned so far?
Walking in other people’s shoes is really important. These debates are full of strongly held opinions, received wisdoms, and rejection of opposing views. It’s important to try and understand where people are coming from, and why. We all have different experiences.
Where that goes is that it’s essential to be disciplined in making sure it’s an inclusive conservation, and the issues are spoken about in an honest way that doesn’t exclude people who may have a different opinion. As a society we chew up too much precious time finding reasons to disagree, and so we make sure we focus on shared interests and challenges in our region.
There’s also a tendency to apply the political lens to these issues all the time. More often than not the issues are about livelihoods, incomes and families more than anything - things we can all understand.
“Walking in other people’s shoes is really important. These debates are full of strongly held opinions, received wisdoms, and rejection of opposing views. It’s important to try and understand where people are coming from, and why. We all have different experiences.”
From a campaign point of view, we’ve seen that being as practical and applied as possible with policy proposals is really valuable. People are a bit fatigued and a bit cynical about some of the conversation about jobs, climate and mining, and so being really specific about policy, whether that’s worker support, coordinating authorities, renewables, regional development or whatever, goes a long way.
We pay a lot of attention to the mythical ‘pub test’ on how our community will receive things, and that’s paid off. We are also constantly developing and testing new policy and project ideas and that’s been well received by community, decision makers and other stakeholders. We try to set the agenda as much as possible, and that means stretching our knowledge base, learning new things to contribute to the discussion, and taking a few risks with ideas that may not get up.
What has the Groundswell grant meant for The HJA?
It was really critical for us. Our first 12 months have been really, really effective, and for us to have that financial support gave us some certainty to plan ahead and think a bit further into the future. What we are trying to achieve is a long term proposition, and so every contribution makes a difference.
It’s also good to see what we are trying to do - something different, something a bit unique - was seen as a valuable contribution. We’re toiling away in our little(ish) region and it pumps the tyres up a bit to have the support!
“It’s good to see what we are trying to do - something different, something a bit unique - was seen as a valuable contribution.”
What are your ambitions for the next 6 months?
It’s looking extremely busy, as we start to pick up momentum. We have the structural change policy advocacy work, the Hunter Expert Panel that we want to make a real contribution to, a really fascinating project on where workers and regional communities fit in with some of the ESG decisions being made by investors, a specific project around renewable energy and aluminium, a community engagement program, and there’s a lot going on with new renewables and manufacturing programs in the region that we are looking to be more active on.
“Given the urgency it can be tempting to take short cuts but at the end of the day we need to do the hard yards to bring the community along, alongside creating and taking opportunities for action, otherwise we’ll be stuck in the spin cycle of two steps forward and two steps back.”
What does leadership on climate look like to you?
There’s a lot of different parts of the puzzle and a lot of brilliant work on different angles going on out there. I think we need to be smart and recognise that there are different needs in different parts of the country, and different takes in the community that we need to hear.
There’s a fine balance between leading the discussion and meeting people where they are. Given the urgency it can be tempting to take short cuts but at the end of the day we need to do the hard yards to bring the community along, alongside creating and taking opportunities for action, otherwise we’ll be stuck in the spin cycle of two steps forward and two steps back.
What gives you hope?
The amount of people I talk to who understand the issues, and who want a more constructive approach to dealing with it. That tells me there’s a better way, and a way we can contribute in our community.
I’m also really positive about the progress we are seeing. The big picture is really tough, but we are putting one foot in front of the other and seeing things change. You put a lot of steps together and before you know it you’re at the destination.
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