Latrobe Valley

The Latrobe Valley is a Health Innovation Zone, but one of the biggest determinants of physical and mental health is financial security.

Energy transition is happening now and the Valley needs a plan to ensure that workers, their families and the broader community thrive beyond coal.

The Latrobe Valley Authority has done good work but they need more funding, and for longer, to create a full transition plan that protects the community. In Germany communities have been promised billions of Euros over many years to transition from coal to other industries.

Enter your details to sign our petition to Victorian Minister for Regional Development Mary-Anne Thomas requesting funding for the Latrobe Valley Authority to create a full transition plan that revitalises the Latrobe Valley economy and improves community health.

Current organisational signatories

Moe Neighbourhood House
Narracan Gardens Aged Care Facility
The Salvation Army Moe Corps
The Salvation Army Morwell Corps
The Salvation Army Traralgon Corps
Advocating for the Latrobe Valley
Friends of Latrobe Water
Gippsland Climate Change Network
Social Workers for Climate Action
Voices of the Valley

Recent individual signatories

Liz Hudson-Cooper
Jason Fletcher
Feng-Quan Liu
Jeni Grubb
Angie Pearson
Janette Connard
Tony Peck
Heike Weber
Denise Stranger
Philip Rayment
Elizabeth Buckingham
Hayley Sestokas
Lorraine Bull
Jane Sultana
Kirsten Brimblecombe
Neil Rankine
Angela Crunden
Deb Reynolds
Latrobe Valley Sustainability Group
Jane Caffrey

You can also read more about the health impacts of pollution in Gippsland here.

Will you sign?

To: The Hon. Mary-Anne Thomas, Minister for Regional Development

Dear Minister,

As health and community service workers, organisations and members of the community, we request that you adequately fund the Latrobe Valley Authority to deliver a full energy transition plan for the Valley that revitalises the local economy and improves community health.

The Latrobe Valley has been designated a Health Innovation Zone to address widespread physical and mental health problems[1]. Many issues are related to poverty, including limited access to health care, limited access to healthy foods, drug and alcohol use and family violence. The Valley has endured poverty since the privatisation of the State Electricity Commission in the 1990’s and it now faces further economic challenges with the current transition from coal to other forms of energy.

The Latrobe Valley Authority has done good work promoting economic diversity in the Valley but it has been given neither a mandate nor a budget to plan a full transition from coal that ensures prosperity for workers, their families and the community. While Germany has pledged billions of Euros to support their coal mining communities to transition[2], the Latrobe Valley has been left in limbo. Delay in planning energy transition causes much uncertainty, posing risks to mental, social and potentially physical health.

To improve health in the Valley, the Valley can and should be supported to return to the level of prosperity it enjoyed before the privatisation of the State Electricity Commission. This will require much more funding, committed for many years, for the Latrobe Valley Authority to work in partnership with the community and industry to deliver a full transition plan.

Will you commit to adequately funding the Latrobe Valley Authority to achieve this?

Sincerely,

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