The Hazelwood transition deal gives my wife and me a future in our hometown | Mark Richards

It's not only 150 workers and their families who will benefit from the transfer scheme in the Latrobe Valley - small businesses will also reap the benefits

I was thrown a lifeline last Friday. Along with at least 150 of my work colleagues, and hopefully many more, I will be given the opportunity to continue to work in the Latrobe Valley power industry, despite the closure of the Hazelwood power station, my workplace of the last 28 years.

The closure of Hazelwood was announced in early November for the end of March and my redundancy effective at 7am on April Fools Day (seriously). The 750 or so workers all knew that Hazelwood was one of the oldest and certainly the most emissions-intensive power station in Australia. We knew it was going to close. But in the last few years the owners had been employing new young people, and they had been told that the jobs would last until at least 2025 in their interviews.