Australian firms could suffer under Albanese carbon policy: Glencore
Glencore chief executive Gary Nagle says the Albanese government’s new carbon policy is progressive by global standards and could do Australia more harm than good.
Speaking after Australian commodities provided more than 70 per cent of Glencore’s $US4.56 billion ($7 billion) half-year profit, Mr Nagle said he was closely watching the updated “safeguards mechanism” carbon policy, which took effect on July 1.
Glencore chief executive Gary Nagle says the government’s policies might end up hurting Australia in the long term. Bloomberg
Mr Nagle dismissed the traditional narrative that Australia was a carbon laggard by global standards, saying the Albanese government’s new policy may have disadvantaged local businesses on the world stage.
“In Australia, clearly some of the legislation is ahead of the rest of the world and that does perhaps put our business and even Australia at a slight disadvantage to the rest of the world given Australia’s progressiveness in advancing the legislation,” he said when asked about the safeguards mechanism.
“Racing ahead doesn’t necessarily always mean a good thing.
“If you race ahead on things like carbon taxes and carbon legislation – which the world does need, we are great believers in ensuring the world decarbonises and one of the levers for that is through a carbon tax – but if one jurisdiction rushes ahead of the rest of the world, that in fact may be prejudicial.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean lower carbon in the world, it actually pushes production and carbon emissions into other parts of the world which may be more carbon intensive, so we need to be a bit careful.
“Australia being so progressive, it sometimes ends up being to the detriment of the local companies and the country and
Read more on afr.com
