Barnaby Joyce is sympathetic to Resources Minister Keith Pitt’s call for the federal government to become a financier of last resort for mining.
The Nationals remain locked in negotiations with the Liberals for a target of net zero emissions by 2050 weeks out from the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Pitt, a Nationals MP, has called for the coalition government to create a funder of last resort for mining projects that can’t otherwise get financing.
“I have sympathy for what they say because I don’t like the idea that our sovereignty of our nation is determined by a financing arm of another country or a board member,” Joyce told ABC radio on Thursday.
The Australian Financial Review reports Mr Pitt wants a $250 billion loan facility in exchange for the Nationals’ support for a net zero target.
Liberal MP Jason Falinski thinks it’s a bad idea to get the government to fund projects the private sector won’t.
“We tried this in the 1980s in Victoria. It was called the Pyramid Building Society. It blew up the Victorian, and almost blew up the Australian, economy,” he said.
“Governments getting involved in lending money through private sector firms has never worked anywhere in the world. It’s not something that we should try and do.”
Meanwhile, independent MP Zali Steggall plans to reintroduce her climate change bill to parliament when it returns on October 18.
She wants to see a target of 60 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030 and for the responsible minister to have a positive duty to ensure climate adaptation goals are in place.
“The business sector, the private sector, industry, unions, medical associations, planners all have said loud and clear that the climate change bills are the policy framework we need to offer certainty and stability for investment,” she told the ABC.
“We’re on the eve of the Olympics of international policy, COP26. History will remember the leaders who show up and show up with a plan to win a gold medal.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated he is unlikely to attend the United Nations talks but no final decision has been announced.
