Draft report of the Manufacturing Taskforce. The subtitle ought to have been “Rentseekers R Us”.
This is an astounding document. In 63 pages it makes dozens of amazing claims, quotes figures for incredible benefits, demands huge public subsidies and wants to wind back the clock on local greenhouse gas generation - all without any facts to support the claims or any embarrassment at their absence. A glossy slideshow presenting the APPEA ambit claim who have quickly adopted the motto Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Looking a little deeper and all we see are motherhood statements about better trained workforce, cutting red tape etc, all the stuff that has been around for years with a huge dollop of gas added on top. It is straight out of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) song book that they have used for choral works for years.
- More gas will reduce prices and fix all of industry’s problems
- Open slather quick approvals
- Weakened environmental controls
- Public subsidies
- It will all go to hell if we don’t get our way
- No mention of climate change
As the ABC has it: Government’s COVID Commission manufacturing plan calls for huge public gas subsidies
Fortunately there is no chance of it being implemented as written. The States that it is aimed at have already dug in and are unlikely to budge and open up the market and somebody with some sense will point out that subsidising a sunset industry is madness. Still it will be fun to watch the PM try to spin it on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.
Just one last gem from the report, under Multiple Barriers Impede Stronger Growth we have:
- Predominance of short term solutions rather than long term stable strategies.
As they go on to plead for their own hand tailored short term solution.
