https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/socialist-candidate-we-need-renewables-not-gas
Socialist candidate: ‘We need renewables not gas’
Kerry Smith,
May 2, 2019
Issue
1219 //
.
Australia
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Joel McAlear (centre in red) at Sydney's May Day rally on May 1. Photo:
Zebedee Parkes
Socialist Alliance NSW Senate candidate Joel McAlear, who grew up in a
working-class family in the Illawarra, said the new gas hub slated for
Port Kembla is a step in the wrong direction.
“How can anyone seriously argue that it makes sense to build an import
terminal to bring in liquified gas — a fossil fuel — from overseas and
re-gasify it here?”, McAlear asked.
The $250 million gas import terminal is being promoted as the solution
to the state’s gas needs and a jobs provider for the region.
But McAlear believes it is “no solution for employment nor for our
future energy needs.
“It ignores the climate science and helps the gas corporations make even
greater profits when they are already making a motza.”
As a community worker, McAlear is also concerned about youth
unemployment in the Illawarra, one of the highest in the country.
“We need more jobs; but they need to be long-term and they need to be
sustainable.
“Many young people — myself included — have never known secure work. As
work has shifted from industry to services, the rate of precarious work
has increased.
“On top of this, there have been continuous cuts to TAFE.
“We could resuscitate the manufacturing industry with new jobs in the
renewable energy industry, given the abundance of sun and wind, if there
was the political will.
“What stands in the way of climate solutions are the major parties’
close ties to the fossil fuel industry.
“We need representatives who are not climate deniers and who will work
for an immediate shift to renewables over the next 10 years.
“The Coalition has its head in the sand and Labor thinks that gas, not
renewables, are our energy future. Both are wrong.
“We now find ourselves in the middle of an emergency.
“The Socialist Alliance has a clear vision and concrete solutions to
these problems. We need an alternative, and it’s time that alternative
became a reality”, McAlear concluded.
[Click here for more information on the Socialist Alliance’s campaign.]
clean energy
Port Kembla gas import terminal
youth unemployment
NSW Socialist Alliance Senate ticket
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