A familiar theme, it had been first spelled out by then-Climate Change Minister Penny Wong when she visited RPG in November, 2009.
It’s great to be here at Kilburn and having just been taken around this site to see the sorts of opportunities that investment in renewable energy brings to South Australia and to the country.... This Government is absolutely committed to renewable energy ... That’s why we’ve got through the Senate the renewable energy legislation to increase by four times the amount of wind power, solar power, geothermal, wave, tidal and whatever other forms of renewable energy...Wong was just getting fired up:
We’re very excited also about the employment potential and today what I saw was people doing welding, painting – a whole range of the traditional trades, but doing it for a renewable energy project. Which just shows that when we talk about green skills or clean energy jobs, it is about the jobs that we used to do but applying them to much cleaner technology for the benefit of the climate, but also for our economy and for our community.Once upon a time RPG made crane booms, mining equipment and other useful things. Now, bolstered by subsidies, handouts and incentives, the company was lauded for the huge strides it was making, as Rann and Combet enthused two years after Wong turned up with the taxpayers' cheque book:
“With RPG in Kilburn, we see a company that has adapted to harness the opportunities of new green industries," Mr Rann said.That was July 26 last year.
“Out of their workforce of about 100 people, 90 of them are working on wind-turbine tower production – an industry that didn’t exist here a decade ago."
“We are confident that a clean energy future for Australia will continue to create employment with new industries and investment opportunities.”
Fourteen months later, "wind-turbine tower production" is once again an industry that does not exist.
