Dirty coal to dirty politics: everything is connected through

a malformed political economy

David Ritter
The life of our reef is intimately linked to the health of our politics and the future of our communities.
Coal has no role to play

David Ritter is chief executive of Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Friday 21 July 2017 04.00 AEST

T en years ago, David Simons iconic TV series The Wire portrayed contemporary
Baltimore as wracked by illegal drug use, violent crime and failing institutions. But
underneath the symptoms were the structures of political economy. As the shows
tagline had it, everything is connected. Simons explained that the show was intended to
depict a world in which capital has triumphed completely, labour has been marginalised
and moneyed interests have purchased enough political infrastructure to prevent reform.

A world away and the idea that everything is connected through a malformed political
economy is also central to Anna Kriens recent Quarterly Essay, The Long Goodbye. Coal,
Coral and Australias Climate Deadlock. In Kriens Australia, it is the power of the coal
industry that is the fundamental problem.
Journeying across Australia, Krien visits proposed mine sites, coastal and inland towns, and
snorkels the Great Barrier Reef. Everywhere she goes, there is evidence of the coal
industrys malign inuence, distorting civic debate with dodgy jobs gures, marginalising
other voices, corrupting politics, thwarting urgent reform for the common good, and driving
the carbon pollution that is killing our reef.

With an evocative eye for human detail, Krien shows that in addition to being unsustainable
in environmental terms, the coal industry is also terrible for the health of our democracy.
The revolving door of elites is a harmonious shifting of bodies in and out of politics, fossil
fuel industry groups, energy and mining companies. The access enjoyed by coal mining
lobbyists (always happy to see you) is contrasted with the eminent scientist who cant get
a meeting with the minister.

Regulations are written to suit big coal not the fresh water, farmland, wildlife or people
they are notionally intended to protect. When someone is plucky enough to take the big
companies on a farmer, an Indigenous group, an environmental group the coal mining
companies get into ts of temper about the rules, and politicians are inclined to reward the
tantrums by making things even easier.

The economics of coal doesnt make sense but, says Krien, it all adds up because
spending has been locked in, promises made, factions formed, donations oered. She
concludes that Australias political system is eectively captive, subject to a Stockholm
syndrome built on donations, royalties, taxes and threats.

In Kriens account, the symptoms of coals unhealthy inuence on Australian politics are
seen to spin out in all directions, from the political response to the tenacious struggle of
Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners to stop the Adani mine, to Tony Abbotts
obsessive war on renewable energy, to the distortion of Australias global diplomatic agenda.

A broader idea of sustainable business denotes an appreciation that the proper role of
business in a democracy and society has limits. It would be for the good of Australia if many
of the connections described by Krien could be loosened or severed. Ban political
donations, says Krien; but there is much more that can be done, including improving
freedom of information laws, slamming shut the revolving doors, addressing the crisis in
mainstream media diversity, introducing next generation anti-pollution laws, ensuring
aected citizens have proper access to environmental justice, imposing the full costs of
mine remediation on the perpetrators, and ending all tax breaks to fossil fuel companies and
their representatives. And we need a federal Icac.

Perhaps above all, a moratorium on new coal developments is now essential to meeting
globally agreed climate targets. But taking the expansion of the coal industry out of the
game is not only essential to halting global warming but could also be a bonanza for
improving and cleaning up our democracy.

There would also be advantages to the broader business community in doing something
about the harmful political inuence of the coal industry. Time, money and strategy spent
on lobbying could be more productively spent on the kind of innovation and transition that
is plainly required.

At present, the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry plainly interfere with the eective
operation of market competition which is why coal, oil and gas continue to receive such
obscene subsidies. Meanwhile the legitimate interests of other sectors are drowned out.
Why for example, are the tens of thousands of sustainable jobs in tourism that rely on the
Great Barrier Reef valued so lowly by our politicians compared to those who might be
employed in digging up coal?

Kriens quarterly essay makes abundantly clear that the life of our reef is intimately linked to
the health of our politics and the future ourishing of our communities. The coal industry is
inimical to all of them.

Topics
Guardian sustainable business
Innovations in renewables
Energy (Environment)
Great Barrier Reef
Business (Australia)
Adani Group
Malcolm Turnbull
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