The Morrison government’s biggest economic problem? Climate change denial

Last week Peter Costello accused Malcolm Turnbull of failing to develop an economic narrative to unite the Coalition. Turnbull promised this when he challenged Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party, but, said Costello, it never came, and the result is a government struggling to manage deep differences over social issues. There was “jobs and growth”, but this is really just a goal without much of a story about how to get there, except for the company tax cuts.

The government’s stubborn commitment to coal is alienating
 it from its natural supporters in the business community.

The big question, though, is why the government does not have a coherent economic narrative.

One possible answer is that it has been too preoccupied with social issues such as religious freedom and before that, same-sex marriage, to give the economy sufficient attention. There is something in that.

Read what the Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University, Judith Brett, has written on The Conversation - “The Morrison government’s biggest economic problem? Climate change denial.”

Raid on Future Fund to support Adani 's proposed coal mega-mine

Could Australia’s sovereign wealth fund be the key source of finance that enables Adani’s Carmichael mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin?

News has emerged that India’s Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, will meet with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Chairman of the Future Fund, Peter Costello, on an Australian visit aimed at trying to secure subsidised government funding for Adani’s proposed coal mega-mine.

Having utterly failed to attract finance from the commercial banking sector for the initial A$10 billion required for the mine, rail and port project, Adani is now looking to its friends in the Indian and Australian government for a little sugar. The Abbott-Turnbull Government has remained staunch supporters of the Carmichael mine but, knowing how unpopular it is with the electorate, would want to find a way to finance it that flies under the radar. A direct handout in the form of a grant is too obvious, but the Future Fund presents several opportunities for a sly multi-billion dollar investment.

Read the Market Forces story - “How could the Future Fund finance Carmichael coal?”

Peter Costello has 'lost the plot': Ian Dunlop

Ian Dunlop, he says Peter
Costello has "lost the plot".

The former chair of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Ian Dunlop, said reports that the Future Fund was considering financing of Adani’s controversial coal mining project in the Galilee Basin suggested its chairman Peter Costello has “lost the plot.”

Reports emerged this week that the Future Fund had been approached by the Indian company to provide finance, after more than a dozen international banks refused to lend money to the project. The reports suggested that Indian Foreign Minister Arun Jaitley is scheduled to meet Costello, the former Howard government treasurer, this Friday.

“It is extraordinary that faced with the structural decline of thermal coal and even a basic understanding of climate change, Peter Costello would entertain the possibility of funding Adani’s Galilee Basin coal mine,” Dunlop said in a statement.

“It seems remarkable, but perhaps the former Treasurer hasn’t noticed the coal boom has ended. One would hope that his fellow board members would have greater foresight.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “Ex-coal chief tells Future Fund’s Costello: the coal boom is over.”

(Just a few weeks ago Clive Hamilton, an Australian author and public intellectual who, since 2008 he has been Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, a joint centre of Charles Sturt University and the University of Melbourne, spoke at a Melbourne public function questioning the Australian Government's perverse interest in and fascination with coal, suggesting there was a certain madness afoot in Canberra. He noted, as does Ian Dunlop in the RenewEconomy story that governments around the world are stepping away from coal – Robert McLean.)