Business Council faces criticism over ‘regressive’ climate change policy

January 14, 2020 Charlotte

The nation’s top business lobbying group is facing pressure to commit to a more progressive climate change stance, with rich lister and Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes labelling the organisation as “regressive”.

The influential Business Council of Australia, which represents some of the nation’s largest companies, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this week there was a need for “credible” climate policy in the wake of Australia’s bushfire crisis, saying the country needed to be on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The leading industry body for corporate Australia is facing pressure to commit to a more progressive climate policy.Credit:Getty

In response, Mr Cannon-Brookes labelled the BCA in a tweet as a historically “regressive force” for positive climate action, pointing to the council’s previous stances on emissions targets and a carbon tax.

The comments come after business leaders urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to take stronger action on climate following the bushfires. Mr Morrison earlier this week signalled a new stance on climate after years of divisions within the Coalition, but has ruled out lifting emissions targets or introducing a “tax” on carbon.

In 2018, the BCA said Labor’s plan for a 45 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 was “economy wrecking”, saying instead the government’s 26 per cent target was “appropriate and achievable”.

Labor requested the organisation formally withdraw the claim, on the basis it was “baseless” and “not true and not supported by any credible evidence”.

The chief executive of the BCA, Jennifer Westacott, doubled down on the claims in an opinion piece for the AFR in August, 2018, where she said there had been “little analysis” of the economic cost of adopting a 45 per cent target, and doing so would be “excessively risky”.

Mr Cannon-Brookes said he is “very hopeful” the BCA’s stance “changes massively” under new chairman, former MYOB boss Tim Reed.

Paul Bassat, a prominent investor, founder of employment website SEEK and board director of the AFL and conglomerate Wesfarmers described the bushfire crisis this week as “our generation’s Port Arthur moment”, referring to the 1996 massacre which prompted the Howard government to tighten gun laws.

“The government and all Australians must take much more aggressive measures to reduce emissions,” Mr Bassat told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. “For those that are sceptical, the simple question I ask is: ‘What if you are wrong? Are you prepared to gamble the planet on your non-scientific hunch?'”

The BCA has been contacted for comment.

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