Written by Senator Sean Bell

Tomago Aluminium, the largest smelter in Australia and a major employer in the Hunter Valley, is at risk of shutting down. This means hundreds of real jobs could be lost, along with the small businesses and families who rely on them. The reason is clear, soaring power prices driven by reckless energy policy. 

Labor’s Net Zero agenda is destroying Australian industry. Reliable and affordable coal-fired power has been torn down by both major parties in favour of expensive and unreliable wind and solar. The result? Industry can’t operate. Workers pay the price. Communities suffer. 

Tomago has supported around 1,000 jobs for decades. Now, due to unreliable energy supply and rising costs, it could close by 2028. That’s not just a blow to smelter workers. It hits truck drivers, fitters, cafes, shops and families right across the Hunter. 

The so-called “support packages” being floated now are a bad joke. We’ve seen it all before, photo ops, big promises, billions wasted. That’s what happened to our car manufacturing industry, Holden, Ford and Toyota. All gone. It proved one thing: government support and taxpayer money only last so long. If you don’t fix the root cause of the decline, the money eventually runs out. 

Unless we deal with the real problem, unreliable, expensive energy caused by the Net Zero agenda, the outcome will be the same. Industry shuts down, jobs disappear, and communities are abandoned. 

Once industries like Tomago shut down, they don’t come back. That’s the reality. The politicians pushing this agenda, Anthony Albanese, Chris Bowen, Labor, the Liberals, won’t be affected. But everyday Aussies, and our future generations, will be. 

The Hunter is full of hard-working men and women. They don’t want short-term handouts. They want a government that protects their communities, supports the industries that built the region’s economy, and delivers cheap, reliable power. Above all, they want a government that puts Australians first.

Tomago is just one example. This same tragedy is playing out across communities all over New South Wales and right across the country. Industry is being shut down. Jobs are being lost. Families are being pushed to the wall, all because of a dangerous energy agenda designed to please inner-city elites, not working Australians. 

One Nation has been warning about this from the start. No country survives without industry. No industry survives without affordable, reliable power. It’s that simple

If we don’t act now to restore cheap, reliable energy and scrap the Net Zero agenda, it won’t just be Tomago that suffers, and the Hunter or NSW, it will be industry after industry, community after community, right across Australia.