It won’t, of course, because eliminating booze and fag selling outlets might actually cost it some revenue, whereas declaring war on coal is a zero-sum publicity campaign for the bank.

Whoever thought up the “no-loans to coal companies” stunt was obviously not thinking through the full implications of making what has been declared to be a “commitment to minimise environmental harm”

Pull the other one. The no coal-loans policy is a total farce, and everybody at the bank knows it because (a) it is a banking minnow, which has probably never been invited to participate in a coal-company loan, and (b) there are many other industries that do far more harm than coal, and kill far more people.

Booze, for example, is a proven killer, as are fags.

So, if the management at Bendigo and Adelaide is dinkum about ethical banking then it must immediately foreclose on all loans to people who sell either booze or fags because by providing them with financial services the bank is contributing in some way to road deaths, cancer, emphysema, and family break-ups – ’cos that’s what booze and fags do to people.

That suggested step will obviously not be taken by the bank, partly because it will argue that selling booze and fags is totally legal, and partly because it would risk wiping out a large chunk of its loan book.

Coal, the last time The Hog looked, was also a totally legal product and while some people have chosen to demonise it in the name of an environmental clean-up campaign, it kills far fewer people than booze and fags.

Bendigo and Adelaide, plus a few other anti-coal crusaders are on a slippery slope called hypocrisy when they campaign against an industry that remains an important part of the Australian economy.

No major political party has called for the abolition of coal mining, nor has any union.

So, the factors that encouraged the bank to join an anti-coal campaign are almost as interesting as the campaign itself and that is one reason why The Hog has detected the unpleasant whiff of a publicity stunt designed by someone at the bank to try and win some cheap headlines and perhaps even generate some business from the Green movement.

Last week’s announcement from the bank that it would not lend to companies with a core activity in the exploration for coal or coal-seam gas came shortly after a handful of superannuation funds said they would also limit their exposure to coal.

Both Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have distanced themselves from the game being played by the anti-coal campaigners.

The PM said, in a talk to the Minerals Council of Australia, that it was important to not demonise the coal industry. Shorten echoed that opinion.

Most thoughtful observers of what is happening will agree with the political leaders from both sides of parliament, though most will probably not see the issue as clearly as The Hog who has watched anti-this and anti-that campaigns come and go as different products and different countries are, indeed, demonised.

Israel, for example, has been an on-off favorite of political campaigners, as has red meat, cheese and bell-bottom trousers.

The truth about coal is that an awful lot of people around the world rely on it for electric light, heating and cooking. Very few have access to ethically pure solar and/or wind power – and far fewer will ever be able to afford it.

Without coal millions, if not billions, of people would be condemned to a sub-standard lifestyle.

What management at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank ought to be thinking about is whether that is what they really want in the name of ethical banking. If they do then they surely must extend their ethical campaign to other materials that cause harm in the community.

Next time the national road death statistics are published the chairman of the bank should consider how many deaths were alcohol related and how many of those cause by alcohol sold by a liquor outlet funded by a loan from his bank.

Or, next time the national lung cancer death statistics are published the chairman of Bendigo and Adelaide should consider whether any of those deaths were caused by smoking fags bought from a shop financed by a loan from his bank.