Subsidies to prop up fossil fuel are more pressing for the Morrison government than subsidies for renewables or climate adaptation
Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, but while there’s no shortage of money to fund the $16bna-year stage three tax cuts for our highest-income earners, when it comes to helping families and businesses recover from the complete devastation of record floods and fires, apparently we need to hasten slowly.
The problem is that it’s already pouring. Like the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the IPCC and the Australian insurance industry, the Morrison government knows that cyclones, storms, floods and fires have already become more common, more intense and more expensive. That’s why they announced a $10bn insurance fund to help subsidise the cost of insurance in politically powerful far-north Queensland.
There is no economic reason the Australian government needs to “save up” billions of dollars in a disaster relief fund. Even if itwanted to prepare, the time to start saving was back when John Howard was prime minister. If the Coalition knew the disasters were coming and thought balancing the budget was important then they should have started scrapping fossil fuel subsidies and stockpiling our pennies in their “special funds” decades ago.
While a carbon price raised a lot of money and reduced a lot of emissions, such economic orthodoxy remains too radical for Australian debate. However, removing the billions of dollars Australia spends on oil, gas and coal subsidies would provide a big price signal and an enormous flow of annual revenue needed for a genuine climate adaptation fund. That is, if we really wanted one.
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