200 green jobs axed as NSW flounders in dead-end economy

Dr Kaye said: "This is a tragedy not just for the 200 workers who will lose their jobs, but for the state’s economic and environmental future.

"Finance and Infrastructure Minister Joe Tripodi and Energy Minister Ian Macdonald should be doing everything within their power to attract, develop and grow renewable energy jobs in NSW.

"These are the jobs that will drive the inevitable low-carbon economy of the future.

"Instead Ministers Tripodi and Macdonald are stuck in last century’s mindset entertaining the laughable proposition that we can continue with business as usual in carbon intensive electricity generation. 

"NSW should be a global centre for manufacturing renewable energy infrastructure, yet the state will now be missing out on a share of the $1.5 billion BP Solar is investing globally because the Rees government doesn’t grasp that coal is a dead end energy source.

"Global leaders from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and US President-Elect Barack Obama have publicly stated that the future for all economies is about developing renewable energy infrastructure.

"The renewable energy manufacturing sector needs the support of the Rees government to develop the economies of scale to compete internationally and meet future growing demand.

"A University of Newcastle study has shown that 73,800 jobs can be created if we get policy right on efficiency and renewable energy.

"Solutions to the future energy needs of NSW are being hobbled by the Rees government’s obsession with electricity privatisation and propping up coal-fired power stations rather than managing the transition to the environmentally sustainable electricity supplies of the future," Dr Kaye said.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455