By Oliver Lees
Achieving a net-zero economy will improve Hume’s economy and jobless rate, according to new data form Victoria University.
The economic growth forecast comes from the university’s Centre of Policy Studies, with specific detail on the impact in different regions across the state.
In raw figures the Centre of Policy Studies estimates that no emissions reduction would see 136,600 people employed in the municipality by 2050, but if the net zero target was reached, that number would climb to 147,700.
From today’s figure of 85,700 employed persons, that net zero employment modelling indicates a 59 per cent increase in employment by 2050.
Star Weekly reported in October that Hume council had committed $1 million to help employ and train eligible job-seeking residents to help improve the city’s high unemployment rate.
According to data from the National Skills Commission from June this year, Hume (12.1 per cent) had the highest rate of unemployment of any local government area in the north west of Victoria.
Hume’s jobless figure is more than two-times that of the state average at 4.1 per cent.
Since March 2020, when Victoria entered its first COVID-19 lockdown, Hume’s unemployment has grown from 8.7 per cent to 12.1 per cent.
In October, the federal government announced its plan to reach the net zero target, laying out a “technology-driven” approach.
Centre of Policy Studies professor Philip Adams said the findings demonstrated the need for government leadership in this area.
“It will be very difficult for Australia to achieve net-zero without some price on carbon, whether that is explicitly through a carbon tax, or implicitly through costs imposed by regulation, subsidies for new technology or the removal of existing fossil fuel subsidies,“ Professor Adams said.
“But the task is getting much easier. Eight years ago, our modelling showed the effective price on carbon needed to be $285 a tonne to achieve net-zero – now it is at $151 per tonne.”
Hume council was contacted for comment.
