Iron ore rout extends; Cochlear, Sydney Airport ahead afr.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from afr.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Denied insurance, rebuffed loan applications and struggling to refinance: Australia’s coal export industry, the world’s largest, says it is being squeezed out by banks and insurers, and some want the government to wade in.
Australia exported A$43bn-worth of thermal coal, its second-largest export by value, in 2020. But miners say that Australian banks’ retreat from fossil fuels as they seek to curb their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is also stifling Asian financiers’ willingness to plug the resulting funding gap.
The complaints come in submissions to a
parliamentary inquiry established earlier this year to examine the impact of prudential regulation on Australia’s export industries. While the probe includes all major exporters, it is expected to focus mainly on the increasingly controversial coal trade.
You’ll also receive special offers from our partners. You can opt-out at any time.
“On delays, we appreciate that government agencies have limited resources and often are dealing with multiple requests,” Elberth says, highlighting that while the environmental non-profit agrees to nearly every extension request they receive, delays in the report “have occurred outside the extension process and more often than not come with little explanation”.
“On costs, we usually do not receive explanations for charges, other than a subjective calculation of the time spent on various parts of the process. For example, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources once advised that it would take five hours ‘search and retrieval time’ to locate four emails.”