Here’s what’s really happening in the Hunter: Dan Repacholi is crying crocodile tears over Origin Energy and the Myuna coal mine. “Myuna workers are being treated as throwaway items!” he wails. Except… that’s exactly what his own government is doing. Every step, every policy, every press release from Labor is designed to shutter Eraring Power Station and destroy these jobs.
Dan plays the outraged champion of the local worker. But where was this energy when Chris Bowen and Labor were pushing renewable mandates, slashing coal subsidies, and effectively signing the death warrant for Myuna jobs? Where was Dan then? Silent. Complicit. Now he shows up with hashtags and soundbites.
Origin Energy isn’t the villain here — the federal Labor government is. They’re the ones dictating the energy “transition,” while pretending the coal miners’ livelihoods don’t matter. Meanwhile, Dan huffs and puffs about corporate greed while cozying up to the very party whose policies guarantee these families lose everything. That’s political theater. It’s spin. It’s betrayal.
If Dan wanted to protect Myuna workers, he’d be yelling at Bowen, not Origin. But calling out your own party? Too risky. Better to posture for the cameras, recycle the same hashtags, and hope no one notices the irony.
This is Labor’s pattern: promise support, crush industry, then let their mouthpieces wag their fingers at private companies. Myuna workers don’t need hashtags. They need politicians willing to fight Labor’s war on coal — and Dan Repacholi is nowhere near that fight.