Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Day, you have convinced me, and I will be supporting your bill.

On 8 September, amongst the other very wise words that I spoke in debating the Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill, I said:

I hope I am not verballing the National Australia Bank, but I thought I heard a report recently that the National Australia Bank had indicated that it was going to stop funding any fossil fuel investments within Australia. For 'fossil fuel investments' read 'coalmines', and where I come from, in North Queensland, coalmines are very important. They are big contributors to the economy, and they create lots and lots of jobs—jobs for mine workers; jobs for all the mine support staff and jobs for those working in the small businesses that support mines.

I said further in that speech:

As I say, if I am verballing them, I will apologise later. I read or heard somewhere that they were going to stop investment in coalmines. That concerns me because I understand how important coalmining is to Australia, to my state of Queensland and to the area where I live and that I represent in this chamber.

I said further:

I would be distressed if a major Australian bank had made a policy decision not to fund fossil fuels. That, to me, would be a bank simply trying to get a warm, fuzzy feeling and succumbing to the propaganda of the Greens political party—the party that says Australia, which emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, is the reason for all the climate change in the world.

I said further:

I hope I am wrong about the National Bank and, if I am, I will come in here and apologise to them. If the National Bank wants to invest in Queensland, it should be investing in coal mines.

As a result of that speech, no less than the Group CEO of the National Australia Bank contacted me and we had a meeting a couple of days after that. The National Australia Bank indicated that what I had said was not true and in fact that the National Australia Bank will continue to invest in coalmines. They indicated that they would send me a statement, which I received just this morning. I seek leave to table this letter, which I have given to the opposition.

Leave granted.

I will read parts of the letter from the National Australia Bank to me:

The Australian Government's 2015 Energy White Paper was explicit in its finding of the need for the energy resources sector to have a strong pipeline of investment - NAB agrees with this finding.

NAB is committed to supporting the entire Australian energy sector. This includes NAB's ambition to be a leader and innovator in funding renewable energy. …

The paper also noted that Australia's overall energy production in 2012/ 13 increased by 9%, underpinned by an increase in coal production by 8% for that period; further, that coal fired electricity generation remains the largest source of electricity generation at 64% of the national mix.

Clearly, the coal industry is a sector of national importance and the National Australia Bank remains ready to support this sector in every appropriate manner.

At the bank's 2014 Annual General Meeting held in Brisbane, Queensland, Chairman Michael Chaney made the following remarks:

"There's comment around the place at the moment about whether banks should lend to coal mining companies and to gas companies and so on ... the finance sector in Australia has a serious responsibility to fund projects that are going to secure Australia 's energy future ... It's completely unrealistic to say (no one) should be funding coal mines for example, because coal has a really important place and role to play in the generation of energy in Australia."

This remains the view of the bank.

The letter goes on to state:

To be clear: NAB is not withdrawing its support for the Australian coal industry. With regards to the energy sector, NAB does not plan to implement 'blanket bans' based on geographies, nor does apply such bans to individual companies.

It is important to emphasise that global interest in the coal sector remains very strong, with financing for coalmining increasing from US$66 billion in 2014, up from $55 billion in 2013, and a 360 per cent increase from 2005. The National Australia Bank, along with the ANZ, Westpac and the Bank of Tokyo, in March underwrote a $1.4 billion refinancing deal for Whitehaven Coal, Australia's biggest independent coalminer.

I know how these green groups work, because I had firsthand experience of it a decade ago as the minister for forestry. These green groups like the ACF and the Wilderness Society seek meetings with banks and governments—

Senator McKim interjecting—