13 June

Lithgow is not unlike most other regional towns or even Oz cities. Some key facts which I think the city needs to come to grips with, to survive, because I think its image of itself is about 150 years old: - the biggest employer and growth industry is health and aged care, and other social and professional services, and they’re all still growing fast - employment in mining and manufacturing has collapsed by several *hundred* percent in only a handful of years - mining is less than 9% of Lithgow’s workforce, and is still going backwards fast - Lithgow’s mines are now mostly owned by Thailand, which also gets nearly all the revenue from them. The money Lithgow gets from the mines is mostly wages, and again that’s now less than 9% of the town’s workforce. Some of my best friends in Lithgow work in the coal industry. I’m as concerned about their future as I am about the town’s future. Mt Piper will also close before 2030, another employer, as will other coal-fired plants in NSW, which is where 40% of Lithgow’s coal goes.