The National COVID19 Commission with Elizabeth Hicks – Under the Radar

Morrison’s “handpicked” National Covid Commission is providing recommendations that are being used to justify the government’s new big push on gas. Five out of six National Covid Commissioners refused to disclose their conflict of interest statement.

Listen to a short snippet of my talk with Elizabeth Hicks here.

Elizabeth Hicks, from Melbourne University Faculty of Law, has written a recent Policy Brief: Private Actors & Crisis: Scrutinising the Roles of the National Covid-19 Commission Advisory Body which raises, not just issues of transparency and conflict of interest, but also the accretion of executive power. This paper discusses how the NCC is making long term recommendations without formal legislative underpinning, clear Terms of Reference and Parliamentary oversight. Although the Commission was set up to provide expertise and advice non short issues around the pandemic, their recommendations have massive implications for long term decisions such as Australia’s energy mix and public spending on large national energy infrastructure projects.

The Commission is headed by Nev Power, previously the CEO of Fortescue Metals Group, raising concerns about about a potential conflict of interest because the commission has promoted gas development as Australia’s major direction for stimulus spending, and many of the Commissioners have strong links to the fossil fuels industry, and the majority have not volunteered to release their conflict of interest statements.

Anne Davies, writing in the Guardian, cites the upending approval of the controversial Narrabri gas field as a significant NCC recommendation favouring the gas industry. She provides more detail on the Commissioners links to the fossil fuel industries:

• Nev Power, previously CEO of Fortescue Metals Group, may favour Andrew Forrest’s gas interests in the Pilbara, NSW gas import terminal at Port Kembla and junior gas producer Squadron Energy. Power is now a board member of Strike Energy, seeking to develop coal gas fields round Perth, and supplyiing gas to a fertiliser manufacturer CSBP.
• Catherine Tanna is the CEO of Energy Australia, a major retail electricity and gas supplier
• Greg Combet worked as a consultant in the gas industry
• Andrew Liveris, former CEO of Dow Dupont, is a director of Saudi oil giant Aramco
• James Fazzino, Chair of Australian Manufacturing Council, is a Director of pipeline company APA

“The risks of executive power expansion attending the Covid-19 crisis must also be considered”

But do we really need more gas?

There is a global gas glut. Nick Toscano describes dozens of LNG cargoes either anchored offshore or idling at sea as Asian buyers delay deliveries”.

Renew Economy’s Michael Mazengarb contrasts with the NCC’s recommendation that “the government use taxpayer funds to underwrite new gas industry infrastructure while concluding that no support is needed for renewable energy” with the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan’s understanding that renewables will be the future of Australian energy, where chaperons and cleaner batteries will push gas into a more limited role, so “there is no real need to expand Australia’s gas production”. 

A “gas-fired recovery” would have huge implications for Australia’s overall emissions.

A new report “Weapons of Gas Destruction” by The Australia Institute raises the alarm about 22 project massive pipeline from Angus Taylor’s gas-fired recovery.

A “gas-fired recovery” would have huge implications for Australia’s overall emissions

“Such is the extent of the gas resources under development, that if extracted and burnt, it would amount to more than double the historical emissions of fossil fuel giants Chevron, Exxon, BHP and Rio Tinto put together.”

Australia’s existing pipeline of 22 gas projects, along with identified and prospective gas resources, could emit up to three times the annual world emissions.

Taking a global carbon budget approach to meeting the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees, Australia’s use of gas resources would use up 28% of the global carbon budget.

It is not surprising that Elizabeth Hicks, writing for Melbourne University’s Faculty of Law has flagged potential conflicts of interest and risks of executive expansion, noting that Commissioners and working group members “are personally selected and appointed by the Prime Minister’s office”, that the Prime Minister has announced that “the NCC would work ‘within’ government, forming part of Cabinet deliberative processes”, and the lack of any clear legislative underpinning its effective oversight.

“Although not immediate, the risks entailed within executive subversion of democratic deliberation reach far further than the life of the crisis itself. Decisions reached by the executive now may affect the public for decades to come.”