Member for Morwell Russell Northe last week in Parliament questioned the Minister for Energy and Resources, Lily D’Ambrosio over funds allocated to the Shanghai Electric Briquetting Project.
“In 2014 State and Federal Governments jointly announced $25 million to Shanghai Electric under the Advanced Lignite Demonstration Program (ALDP) but the project which was to be based in the Latrobe Valley did not proceed,” Mr Northe said.
“Members of my community including Advance Morwell are now asking whether the State Governments funding commitment of $12.5 million will be redirected into the Latrobe Valley for other economic development programs.
Mr Northe said the Andrews Government had axed the Coalition’s successful $15 million Latrobe Valley Industry and Infrastructure Fund (LVIIF) leaving the business community without a specific avenue to secure economic development funding.
“Therefore the redirecting of this funding into our community is critically important to boost business confidence in the region,” he said. Mr Northe said if the Shanghai Electric project was no longer proceeding then that money should be redirected to re-establish a program such as LVIIF.
“LVIIF was aimed at boosting employment, industry and infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley and it supported more than 40 businesses and leveraged close to $100 million in investment, creating 1200 jobs in our community.
“With unemployment levels on the rise now is the time for the Andrews Government to do something to create jobs in the Morwell electorate,” Mr Northe said.
“Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last week shows that 3,600 full-time jobs have been lost in Latrobe-Gippsland since the Andrews Government came to office.”
Mr Northe said the unemployment rate in Latrobe has risen from 6.1 per cent in December 2014 to 8.2 per cent in January 2016.
“Daniel Andrews came to office promising to create 100,000 full-time jobs in two years but more than a year on and 3,577 full-time jobs have been lost in the Latrobe-Gippsland region,” Mr Northe said.
“Jobs in the Latrobe-Gippsland region have gone backwards since Daniel Andrews became Premier. He has been all talk and no action.
“It appears Daniel Andrews and his colleagues are too busy fighting amongst themselves rather than focusing on creating jobs in regional Victoria.”
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