One ex-banker in particular thinks he should get the job as the new Lord Mayor of Brisbane and he reckons he is on a winner.
Former Macquarie Bank executive Ron Harding has told the ratepayers of Brisbane he wants to stop a repeat of the storm that ravaged through city four years ago and he feels so passionately about this cause that he is standing with the Labor Party on a platform selling off fossil fuel investments.
“Brisbane is also prone to severe summer storms, with council clean-up bills often running into the millions,” Harding said. “Any action we can take to help slow climate change and mitigate future storm damage should definitely be taken.”
Good one Ron. Taking on mother nature single handedly like that, you’re a real hero.
Hogsback thinks he must have also been keeping up with his mates back in the banking industry, who are increasingly becoming anti-coal in between collecting their bonuses.
Of course it makes good commercial sense to avoid investments in coal when the prognosis looks so bad. As we know, bankers like to travel in packs. Remember the global financial crisis?
Harding has obviously done his homework and noticed that local governments in Melbourne and Canberra have all gone down this route and picked up a few handy votes.
It is one of life’s great ironies that many of the greatest beneficiaries of Australia’s coal and mineral bounty reside in the major capital cities yet they are the ones who are clamouring loudest against its development.
The QRC’s 2014-15 Economic Contribution Report shows that the resources sector accounts for the jobs of 150,000 Brisbane workers, according to its CEO Michael Roche.
“These are ordinary citizens, working in engineering and metal fabrication businesses, transport and logistics, legal and accounting firms and environmental consultancies, to name just a few,” Roche said.
“In fact there are more than 5,000 Brisbane businesses that are direct beneficiaries of spending by resources companies.”
Hogsback has known for many years that the inner city suburbs of our major cities have a long standing distaste for all things coal.
But he is being growingly appalled by the local governments of two of New South Wales’ greatest coal communities – Newcastle and Wollongong – trying to bite the hand that feeds them.
NSW Minerals Council Stephen Galilee told a conference this week in Wollongong that coal mining generates $1 billion worth of economic activity in the Illawarra.
But Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, who was on the same platform as Galilee at the Australian Coal Prep Society conference, has awarded Louis Pratt Wollongong’s $30,000 acquisitive prize for a statue of “King Coal” that apparently “hit the mark”
“Coal has been part of our history and success, but fossil fuels now have a challenging future,” Bradbery is quoted as saying in the Illawarra Mercury. “The sculpture uses of 3D printing – which references the context of what is going on over at the university and has an interface between the inorganic and organic themes – you know, coal is formally a plant, now dead.
“And here it’s shaped into something that reflects the attitude of humanity towards the environment.”
That’s all very nice, Mr Mayor. But let’s make sure your ratepayers really know the economic contribution of coal mining today and into the future.
