Terri Butler warns Labor over pushing workers into...

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    Terri Butler warns Labor over pushing workers into renewables

    Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler has warned Labor will fail to secure climate reforms with ‘blithe’ statements about transitioning to renewables.Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler has warned Labor will fail to secure climate reforms with ‘blithe’ statements about transitioning to renewables.

    Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler has questioned how many environmentalists would be “willing to take an $80,000 pay cut” into a greener job, as she warns Labor will fail to secure any climate change reforms with “blithe” language about transitioning workers out of the coal sector.

    The Labor Left MP told members of the party’s environmental wing that it was “not an equivalence” to say there will be as many well-paid jobs in the renewables sector if mining is phased out.

    “If I said hands up right now hands up who is willing to take an $80,000 a year pay cut right now, I don’t reckon many people would put their hand up,” Ms Butler said at an event in Sydney organised by the Chifley Research Centre.

    “I’m not going to do it but there is a real question about, not just what people say they want but what they are actually willing to do.

    “Sometimes we can sound a bit blithe when we say ‘oh no no no there will be plenty of new jobs’. You can see why some people would be saying ‘well that is easy for you to say, mate’.

    “The experience of this change to renewables, where there is genuine concern good, secure, well-paid jobs could potentially be replaced with insecure less well-paid jobs.

    “It is not an equivalence to say there will be just as many jobs because what people really want is they want certainty, they want security, they want to know that the living standards they enjoy will be enjoyed by their children at least, if not bettered by their children.”

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    The session Ms Butler spoke at was organised by the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) and included biodiversity expert Kristen Davies, Wilderness Society campaign manager Suzanne Milthorpe, and LEAN secretary Erin Watt.

    Ms Butler said the transition of closing down of traditional industries over the past few decades had decimated some regional communities.




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    She said she “can’t think of a stupider thing” than Bob Brown’s anti-Adani convey during the election campaign.

    “It is no wonder why people are worried about their future when the experience of transition has been …at worst quite terrible for communities and for jobs,” Ms Butler said.

    “(Bob Brown’s convoy) is a great cautionary tale for us because it is a reminder that solutions have got to come from communities. The people from that community often know best of what that community needs.

    “We need to bring people together and the only way of bringing people together is by respecting, listening and identifying with their material circumstances. I might be a bit old fashioned as a leftie but I’m pretty much but I’m pretty much a materialist. I got into politics because of the effect of politics on the material conditions of our lives.”

    Ms Butler’s comments followan impassioned defence of the coal sector by federal Labor colleague Meryl Swanson, who represents the coal electorate of Paterson in the NSW Hunter Valley.

    Speaking at the same conference on Saturday, Ms Swanson said once-respected miners accustomed to earning upwards of $100,000 a year did not want to leave their jobs to “screw solar panels on roofs for $40,000 a year”.

    “So when we say to them ‘we are going to transition you out and we are going to bring in renewables’. They hate that. And well they should.”

    Meanwhile, Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will on Sunday afternoon make a speech at the conference calling for zero-tolerance on corruption to restore people’s faith in democracy.

    “At the most blatant end of this is corruption – politicians shamelessly trading their authority for personal enrichment. Unfortunately, as those of us from New South Wales know, this has not been a sin restricted to our opponents,” Ms Plibersek will say.

    She will also urge Labor supporters to avoid getting dragged into culture wars and debates about identity.

    “The right loves to tell stories about what the left ‘really’ believes. They try to portray us as obsessed with identity politics. But most people in the Labor Party know you have to deal with the basics first – the economy, national security, quality services,” Ms Plibersek will say.

    “When we get dragged into a culture war, people think we’ve lost touch with what really matters to them – and it lets the Liberals distract from their hopeless economic management.

    “The Israel Folau saga was case in point. As uncomfortable as his words were, he should generally be able to say what he believes, especially inside his family’s private church – just as I should be able to disagree with him.”

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/terri-butler-warns-labor-over-pushing-workers-into-renewables/news-story/0fbb9c3e454d17b168852aa8122776d1?type=curated&position=3&overallPos=3&utm_source=TheAustralian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=TATheWeekendAusSun&utm_source=TheAustralian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=TATodaysHeadlinesSubPM&net_sub_uid=285682985

 
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