What would you do with a billion dollars?

My entry in the Newcastle Institute's 'What would you do with a billion dollars competition":
One billion dollars could be the investment kickstart needed for the Hunter’s productive, well-educated and solidarity-minded workforce to begin the necessary shift to renewables.

Life after coal will come sooner, rather than later, and will necessarily involve renewable technologies like wind and solar energy.
The Hunter could lead in a national transition, becoming a manufacturing hub for wind turbines and solar power technologies on the east coast.
New sustainable industries would help replace jobs being lost in coal and create new ones which could be taken up by those in need of support such as indigenous people, women and refugees.
A rebirth of Australian manufacturing based on a transition to renewables would create a need leading to expansion of the region’s vocational training and higher education sector.
Manufacturing based on renewable technologies would also assist the fast rail project, the local manufacture of rail carriages, the extension of the Hunter’s cycle ways and an expansion in public transport.
The flow-on effects of a skilled-up workforce could include improvement of our social housing stock and retro-fitting of current housing with energy-saving measures.
One billion could shift us to a clean and renewable energy future and create more jobs and stronger communities.