Labor plan to reduce emissions could 'turbo-charge' Hunter: Shortland MP Pat Conroy

The "comprehensive plan", titled Powering Australia and unveiled Friday, is a roadmap to meeting a revised 43 per cent emissions-reduction target by 2030.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the "fully-costed" plan, to be implemented if the party wins government next year, would create 604,000 jobs nationwide and reduce household power bills by $275 a year by 2025.

Five out of every six jobs would be in regional Australia.

Under the plan, Labor would allocate up to $3 billion from its proposed National Reconstruction Fund to invest in green metals; including steel, alumina and aluminium; clean-energy component manufacturing; hydrogen electrolysers and fuel switching; agricultural methane reduction and waste reduction.

Mr Conroy said that investment, coupled with a proposed $20 billion investment in reworking the power network "to allow more renewable energy into the grid", would "grow new industries" in the region.

"Industry wants this," he said.

"Companies want to invest in cheaper energy and reducing our emissions.

"Existing facilities have a real opportunity and we've put aside $3 billion to grow new-tech industries. That money has been assigned to developing industries like green hydrogen and ... battery manufacturing.

"They're all things that are happening in the Hunter, to some extent, and this will just turbo-charge it. This $3 billion will help turbo-charge the Hunter economy."

Hunter Jobs Alliance coordinator Warrick Jordan said the plan would allow the region to "make the most of the opportunities" renewables and associated emerging industries presented.

"The major parties have recognised the reality that there is a lot of opportunity around renewables, but Labor has put forward a plan that has a lot more detail and more specific investment," he said.

"The Coalition's plan has been pretty light on and it was making it hard to identify what the value was actually going to be for somewhere like the Hunter.

"From what we can see that Labor has put forward, it's a lot clearer about how that is going to happen. They've turned up with some detail and serious allocations which you've got to give credit for."

Fiona Lee, co-coordinator of Gas Free Hunter Alliance, said the plan was a "great step forward" but "we need to see the federal Labor party oppose new gas projects, like the Kurri Kurri power plant, as a way of bringing down emissions - as recommended by the conservative International Energy Agency report".

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