The First Nations Clean Energy Network (FNCEN) held their national symposium on the Sunshine Coast on the 14th and 15th of August.
The Network supports First Nations communities to become a part of the energy transition.
The FNCEN is a network of First Nations people, community organisations, land councils, unions, academics, industry groups, technical advisors, legal experts, renewables companies and others, working in partnership to ensure that First Nations communities share in the benefits of the clean energy boom.
The ETU knows that in the coming years, thousands of kilometres of transmission lines, new large scale solar and wind farms and battery storage will need to be built, and all of this will be able to power new steel, aluminium and critical minerals industries throughout the country.
A large percentage of these developments are on First Nations lands – and the network was founded to make sure that communities are equipped to negotiate with developers to deliver reliable, secure power for their communities, ongoing revenue and good jobs.
Katie Hepworth, ETU’s National Policy Director, attended the symposium and was a spokesperson on a panel discussing negotiating with developers; highlighting how collective action by ETU members has won conditions that electrical workers enjoy today. And talking about how ETU WA is taking on the fight to unionise the Pilbara for the first time in 30-plus years.
The ETU has partnered with the FNCEN on the development of their jobs plan. A plan about increasing access to training, creating employment, and building career paths in the clean energy sector for First Nations Australians. You can read more about this plan and the Powering First Nations Jobs in Clean Energy report here