Seeley International warns of dire consequences for Victorian gas ban

Victoria last week revealed it would ban gas for all new homes and subdivisions from January in a move lauded by environmental and health groups - but slammed by many who fear job losses in manufacturing, plumbing and trades sectors.

Seeley International, touted as Australia's leading manufacturer of heating and cooling systems which has a factory in Albury and a warehouse in Wodonga that collectively employ 125 people, warned the move could spell disaster on several fronts.

"This is a very serious threat to our whole business, frankly, and to a significant number of jobs in Albury-Wodonga," Seeley International managing director Jon Seeley said.

"This will potentially have very big impact on Albury-Wodonga because ducted gas heat is a big part of what we build in the factory in Albury and we have the storage at Wodonga."

Mr Seeley said while he didn't want to alarm employees, his company would be in Albury on Monday, August 7, to speak to politicians about the dire impact and address staff to reassure them the company was formulating plans.

Albury MP Justin Clancy confirmed he was meeting with Mr Seeley to discuss the gas ban.

"Seeley is a major employer in this region and are raising their concerns about what they see as the impacts locally from the Victorian government's policy shift," Mr Clancy said.

"Given these concerns, particularly in relation to jobs, as a local MP I feel it is important to meet with them and look forward to doing so on Monday."

Mr Seeley said the company was preparing a case to present to Victorian premier Dan Andrews.

"The government still has an opportunity to come out and clarify that this is only about new homes and the existing gas supply is not going to be cut off anytime soon and can't be," he said.

"The Victorian government's foolish and short-sighted ban on gas in new homes will only push emissions higher and increase the risk of blackouts.

"We'll be warning the Victorian government, but it has an opportunity to calm the potential for panic.

"We are very concerned about potential job losses at the moment. It's literally less than a week since we heard about this, so the first issue we have is that there was no consultation, no announcement."

He said in terms of building homes the decision would not affect consumers until January 1, but in the marketplace "it's affecting us on day one".

"People are misinterpreting this, thinking that the government is going to cut off their gas on January 1, so our biggest message to the people of Victoria is don't panic, you won't lose your gas on January 1, you just won't be able to build it into new homes."

After NSW leaders sat on the fence last week, NSW Premier Chris Minns last Monday ruled out intervention to stop gas connections in new builds.

"I'm not going to add more and more bits and pieces to our energy policy when we've got enough on our plate at the moment," Mr Minns said.

Indigo Power managing director Ben McGowan told The Border Mail last week the move away from gas "was the way the country is going".

"I guess it may be a shock for people not paying attention, but for those paying attention it's not a shock given those things aligning, the cost, the emissions, the emissions intensity, and all the policy and investment is heading towards electricity and not gas," Mr McGowan said.

"All of the big investment in Australia is heading to electricity infrastructure, there's huge investment in transmission, there's huge investment in generation, especially in renewable energy.

"And there's also huge investment for rooftop solar household batteries and related technology."

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