At last, the chair of the nation's Net Zero Economy Agency, labour movement champion Greg Combet, will walk to the podium at the National Press Club and tell us what is going on.
Mr Combet, pictured, has twice postponed this address for undisclosed reasons. In the interim he has taken on the esteemed but demanding role of chair of Australia's Future Fund. Hopefully, Mr Combet's slow walk to the podium on April 2 means more can be revealed, that detailed plans for the work of the net zero agency can be disclosed, that a sound economic direction for the Hunter region will be forged.
The idea of a transition authority - to guide the Hunter's transition out of coal - has had widespread support in the Hunter for at least two decades.
In 2019 the-then federal Labor leader, Bill Shorten, committed to the establishment of a transition authority to steer the Hunter, Central Coast and Lithgow regions out of coal-fired power stations and associated mines should Labor win the upcoming election, which it failed to do.
The idea was resuscitated by federal Labor in 2022 should Anthony Albanese lead Labor to victory in the 2022 election, which he did. All six federal electorates in the Hunter and along the Central Coast were won by Labor. Then, NSW Labor promised a Hunter-based transition authority should it win the 2023 state election, which it did, returning seven Labor MPs in the Hunter and four more on the Central Coast.
In politics, however, promises have little substance after the whistle blows on the argy-bargy of an election campaign. Fulfilling a promise isn't easy. Invariably, new legislation needs passing, government resources procured, implementation strategies negotiated, often a new agency established. It's easier for an MP to cosy up in the electorate office, fine tune Facebook posts and gear up for the next election three or four years down the track.
So how go the promises - by state and federal Labor - of a transition strategy for the Hunter?
For the Minns' state Labor government, progress is hard to find. A recent investigation by the Newcastle Herald ("Silence on progress of authority to help Hunter stay a powerhouse", March 4, 2024) found nothing of substance, no claim of achievement, no money spent.
For the Albanese government, a lack-of-progress report could also be written.
There is a website attributable to the Net Zero Economy Agency, the predecessor, apparently, to a full-on authority. "Work is ongoing to design and stand up [sic] the Authority in accordance with established Parliamentary processes," it states. The site lists the names of an advisory board, but to advise who? About what? We are told nothing.
A single item on the agency's website catches the eye: Greg Combet is the chair of the agency.
I have written previously that the transition from fossil fuels is unfinished political business for Mr Combet.
In 2009, as MP for the-then Lake Macquarie seat of Charlton, Combet was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change in the Kevin Rudd Labor government. He was given responsibility for development of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. However, Combet's scheme failed to pass the Senate, bizarrely because of opposition by the Australian Greens.
Combet was then appointed Minister for Climate Change in 2010 in the Julia Gillard Labor government. Combet's task was delivery of Labor's Clean Energy Futures package which he shepherded through both houses of parliament.
Yet the package was overturned when the Tony Abbott Coalition government came to power in 2013.
A decade on, as chair of the Net Zero Agency, Greg Combet has the chance once more to make a lasting contribution to the global transition away from fossil fuels and, specifically, to secure for the Hunter a prosperous, sustainable future.
We will listen to Mr Combet's press club address with much interest. For the Hunter, the economic stakes are as high as they have ever been.
