Australian Union warns of aluminium industry crisi

Monday, May 28, 2012
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  The Herald reported that the Australian Workers Union has called for the state and federal governments to take urgent action to address a worsening crisis for the country's aluminium industry on the back of Hydro's move to close its Kurri Kurri smelter.

  The union said that it would raise the smelter's fate at a meeting of Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard's taskforce on manufacturing scheduled in Canberra tomorrow.

  The company said that falling metal prices, uncertain market conditions and a strong Australian dollar had made the smelter unprofitable in the short term. Long term viability will be negatively affected by a number of factors including increasing energy costs and the carbon tax.

  Federal Hunter MP Mr Joel Fitzgibbon said that he had spoken to Employment Minister Mr Bill Shorten to ensure the government would be quick to help workers find new jobs. He was confident most Hydro workers would find other employment as businesses were screaming out for staff with the mining industry driving 3.5% unemployment rate in his electorate.

  Cessnock state MP Mr Clayton Barr said that the closure was a plague on both your houses for the state government and its Labor predecessor's failure to sign a new electricity supply contract with Hydro. Hydro has been in negotiations with state owned generator Macquarie Generation for more than a year to extend its power supply beyond a 10 year contract due to expire in 2017. A deal it negotiated with Delta Electricity was blocked by the former Labor state government in late 2010 while it sold some electricity assets.

  Mr Barr described the closure as the tragic result for the town of a perfect storm of factors that included the carbon tax and contract delays. The state government had to step in and help workers after the NSW Coalition heavily criticized Labor for blocking the Delta deal.

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