Coal exports negate Australia’s green transition

If we were to significantly reduce coal exports, it would drive up the market price, making renewable energy more competitive, and reduce global greenhouse gases more than closing all of Australia’s coal plants. Or is the tax revenue generated by mining royalties and company profits more important?

Adrian Tilley, Carindale, Qld

Australia should pledge $100m at COP28

As the government wrestles with fossil fuel phase-out, there is concrete action that Chris Bowen can take to build Australia’s climate credentials at the COP28 talks in Dubai.

Climate change has already wreaked devastation across the world, causing irreversible loss and damage, and dealing a huge economic blow, particularly in low-income countries. Loss and damage funding needs for low-income countries are estimated at $US400 billion a year. Funding needs will only grow if ambitious action is not taken in line with the Paris Agreement target.

Australia has played an important leadership role as a member of the loss and damage transitional committee. The government must provide an urgently needed financial contribution, in line with like-minded countries including the US, the European Union, Britain and Canada. Australia could step up and make an initial pledge of $100 million to the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28.

Pacific communities are looking to Australia for global leadership on loss and damage, and this would be a concrete sign we are serious, alongside any regional initiatives we support.

Marc Purcell, CEO, Australian Council for International Development

Productivity Commission, open your eyes

Danielle Wood and Alex Robson from the Productivity Commission blame a host of factors for the appalling productivity of Australian business (“Be alert but not alarmed about post-COVID productivity slump”). They blame younger workers and the sort of work they are forced to do, people working from home, those suffering long-term effects of COVID, and so on.

For some reason they ignore real-world factors such as the increasing evidence for higher concentration ratios in markets being dominated by fewer producers. Increasingly non-competitive markets mean less competition taking the form of lower prices and/or improved quality.

As the textbooks have been teaching for ages, in concentrated markets we get non-price competition. CBA alone says it spends more than a quarter of a billion dollars on advertising and marketing. There is a massive sales and marketing effort in electricity as competitors fight to supply us with the same thing. Motor vehicles and whitegoods have more and more features that few of us want. Our supermarkets suffer waste and theft as they try to make their wares more tempting. Our quarterly utility bills are designed to frustrate comparisons between providers, and so it goes.

Ms Wood should ask the Productivity Commission people to open their eyes on their way to and from work when they buy their petrol and groceries and, on the weekend, when they do the rest of their shopping.

David Richardson, The Australia Institute, Manuka, ACT

Let’s reconsider tax breaks for charity

Faith leaders have joined other interested parties in supporting the retention of tax deductibility for charitable donations (“Faith leaders attack curb on tax deductions”). But is this a fair and equitable way to distribute giving?

Someone on an income over $180,000 (47 per cent tax) donating $1000 to a registered charity actually contributes $500 and the ATO matches that almost dollar for dollar. The claim that the tax deduction encourages more giving (“Charitable giving needs an overhaul”) is deceptive. They contribute the same sum, with or without the deduction.

The important question is whether those on higher incomes, who claim the most tax deductions for giving, should also be directing the government to match their generosity to the causes that wealthy donors support.

It may be better for the Productivity Commission to allow and encourage giving to charity, but to recommend no tax deductions. Perhaps the government can direct what were the refunds to an independent body to distribute appropriately.

Peter Scally, New Farm, Qld

Bring accounting bodies to account

The public doesn’t endow accountants with many favourable qualities; however, we have business acumen as well as financial management, analytical, organisational and problem-solving skills.

CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants ANZ are, however, undermining the credibility of their memberships following dreadful financial results. In the past two years, CPAA has accumulated losses of $35 million and CAANZ $16 million (both before tax). If the professional accounting bodies cannot turn a modest profit in most years then marketing campaigns like “difference makers” are expensive vanity projects at best or, worse, an object of ridicule.

The directors of CPAA and CAANZ are unelected by their memberships, and hence unaccountable. Unfortunately, if voting numbers are any guide, the majority of CPAA and CAANZ members are disinterested onlookers. In 2019, barely 10 per cent of CAANZ members bothered to vote on sweeping governance changes.

We, the members, have therefore tacitly approved the omnishambles enveloping our professional bodies.

C.M. Abbott, Leeming, WA

‘Utopian’ angle to Suburban Rail Loop

If the producers of ABC’s satirical (documentary?) TV show Utopia need inspiration for future episodes, Victoria’s Suburban Rail Loop project must surely provide a rich source. Utopia may even have foreseen PwC’s engagement to “prove up” the strategic business case.

Episode seven in season two has fictional Nation Building Authority chief Tony briefing a battery of consultants to obtain an independent assessment of a cross-city tunnelling project that all experts agree is not viable.

The lead consultant, eager to please, seeks a “broader compass direction” from Tony (read: What is the desired outcome of the independent assessment?). In comical unison, the consultants lean forward in anticipation of Tony’s response and are clear on the outcome of their assessment when he declares: “It’s no secret ... that the government is keen to move forward.”

The differences between satire and reality in this case appear to be that the equivalent of the NBA was omitted completely from initial decision-making, and the outcome desired from PwC was conveyed in a less subtle way.

Charlie Fearon, Belair, SA

GOP shows Gareth Evans is right about US

The news report “Republicans deny Biden’s pleas to fund Ukraine war” makes the very point that Gareth Evans is arguing in his “can’t rely on the US” Review article.

Real security comes from being prepared to stand alone against threats.

Gerry O’Reilly, Camberwell, Vic

Wine cask teacher was asking for trouble

David Marin-Guzman reports that a teacher was penalised for drinking from a wine cask during a Zoom meeting. Why couldn’t he use a coffee mug like everyone else?

Sandra Torpey, Hawthorn, Vic