The Nationals’ Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron, had the pleasure of hosting the Consul-General of Japan, Tokuro Furuya, on a tour of the Latrobe Valley’s major industries this week.
Starting at Maryvale, Mr Furuya was shown the inside workings of Opal Australian Paper’s brown paper mill where more than 500 people are employed.
“Mr Furuya had a particular interest in the paper mill given it’s a subsidiary of the Nippon Paper Group which is a Japanese company,” Mr Cameron said.
“While at Maryvale we also received a briefing about the Energy from Waste project which, if commercialised, would be transformative for our region and a much-needed stimulus as we rapidly near the closure of our coal-fired power stations.”
Mr Furuya and Mr Cameron were also hosted on a tour of the Loy Yang power station and mine, a briefing from proponents of the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project, and tour of the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre.
“To see the sheer size of the mine was awe-inspiring for Mr Furuya, and Loy Yang owners AGL provided insights about its day-to-day operations and the role it plays as the heart of industry in the Latrobe Valley,” Mr Cameron said.
“The HESC pilot project was very successful and commercialisation of this supply chain would mean hundreds if not thousands of jobs for the region.
“In operation, HESC would send liquefied hydrogen to Japan via the Port of Hastings using local brown coal resources.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to achieve the significant economic and emission reduction benefits that a commercial scale clean hydrogen project can deliver.
“Once you factor carbon capture and storage into the project, there is no reason to oppose what would effectively be an environmentally friendly project that will help us create jobs, boost exports, and help us set up a hydrogen economy in Gippsland.”
