Unemployment Persists 7 Years After Hazelwood’s Closure

Latrobe City Council Mayor Dale Harriman says the local population has also shrunk.

A sign outside the now closed Hazelwood Power Station in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia on March 31, 2017. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

People are still unemployed seven years after the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria was shut down, an Australian parliamentary inquiry has heard.

At the recent hearing on establishing civilian nuclear power in the country, the Latrobe City Council’s mayor, Dale Harriman, revealed his community had not recovered from the closure of the coal-fired power station.