Climate change and investment - a failure to connect?
The ABC’s coverage of current economic news, as useful as it may be, maintains the mainstream disconnect between climate change and investment priorities of private corporations.
David Speers - the ABC’s wannabe pop star commentator - summarises the current state of the “politics” of the Labor government’s decision on the carbon emissions target for 2035.
He says this:
“The other is the slower than expected roll-out of large-scale renewable energy projects, thanks to Australia's painfully cumbersome environmental approvals process (which the government is also trying to fix), and local community concerns.”
Thus, he promotes the “popular” line that environmental regulations are the primary impediment to what is required. He ignores the big and growing mass of funds available to the private sector for climate change projects that are instead directed into unproductive wealth accumulation, especially “share buybacks”.
By ignoring the very serious problem of “share buybacks” he reproduces popular ignorance of what a waste they are relative to socially useful decisions.
Separately, Tom Crowley - the ABC’s online politics reporter - fills us in on the current state of play on corporate tax cuts.
He quotes and comments on the Prime Minister:
““Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told business leaders this week he was open to reforming the tax to boost investment in a "fair and affordable" way.
“While the PM did not elaborate and said any changes would be for "future budgets", the comments would be consistent with a balanced package of investment-boosting tax cuts for some businesses, but higher taxes for others.”
He reproduces the message of the top 200 corporations and their followers, including the Business Council, that there is a corporate tax problem, and it is the most serious one that impedes productive investment growth.
Again, the actual investment practices of corporations are not described or analysed. It is assumed there are no serious problems there or, deliberately intended to they don’t get on the radar of the people.
Yet, investment practices - what the owners of capital do with the profits they take from the value created by workers - are a very big deal for the people. They are the difference between whether workers have a reliable job and decent wages, and safety at work … or not; and the difference between the urgent rescue and renewal of nature … or not.
Corporate tax cuts, and other forms of government aid, like subsidies and low-interest loans, come with zero or very modest conditions. In effect, they are a gift. And, by attacking the regulatory regimes, the big 200 want even less. There is certainly no intent under this Labor government that strong public accountability and democratic participation, let alone public ownership, should go with that aid.
Rather, we have the PM’s preference for a “market-led recovery”, code for leaving the rogues who run the top 200 in charge of productive development.
While the rogues are in charge the continuing tendency is productive investment - gross fixed capital formation - withers because the primary requirement prevails for stronger profit than competitors. At the same time, because total profits are still very high despite a recent dip, more is being pushed into anti-productive “share buybacks”.
Crowley’s quote from the Prime Minister (above) reinforces the problem. Corporate tax cuts just provide more for big capital to shove into those unproductive schemes.
That leaves the Australian people and those of the Pacific nations still waiting for the massive investment required to bring emissions down quickly while improving the standard of living for the majority.