Net Aero Economy Authority is law. This was a massive win for union members after a decade-long fight to make sure we have a fair and just transition to a clean energy future. The NZEA is about respect and recognition of energy workers and their communities as we transition away from coal. These workers have literally kept the lights on for all of us and they deserve a fair and prosperous future.
The ETU is continuing to work with members and communities and Government to ensure the NZEA achieves what it was designed to achieve – to support workers with training and redeployment and create resilient regional economies with well-paid, safe, and secure jobs.
Over the past year, workers at Torrens Island power station in SA and the Eraring power station and Centennial Myuna coal mine in NSW have been engaged in consultation with the NZEA about an Energy Industry Jobs Plan (EIJP) to support workers in the transition away from coal and gas power. The focus of the consultation has been on whether the NZEA should establish an EIJP with each employer, the need for transition supports, and gaps in the supports that have already been negotiated locally through enterprise agreement campaigns.
For Torrens Island workers, that consultation started in February 2025, and for the Eraring and Centennial Myuna workers, the consultation started in May 2025. Workers in both states are now waiting on the NZEA to determine which employers should be covered by an EIJP and make an application to the Fair Work Commission. Work can then begin on negotiating the content of the EIJPs – the practical support that workers need to transition into new work in other industries or other parts of industry.
The ETU has supported its members throughout the consultation processes, including in written submissions to the NZEA and organising local meetings for workers to engage directly with the NZEA.
While those consultation processes have progressed, the NZEA has also launched a 12-month review of EIJPs and the NZEA Act. In that review process, the ETU is pushing for EIJPs to be established earlier and faster, for transition supports to be in place long enough to complete meaningful retraining, for better regional planning to deliver new job opportunities in the affected regions, and for better coordination of State and Federal funding to support workers and their communities through the energy transition. As part of that review process, our union engaged with the NZEA review panel in meetings throughout August and September 2025, in the Hunter Valley region, NSW; Adelaide, SA; Gladstone, QLD; Gippsland, VIC and in Canberra.
ETU members will continue the fight to make sure we have a fair and just transition to a clean energy future, a future we know will be built by ETU members.
You can read the ETU’s submission to the Energy Industry Jobs Plan review here