BHP should think of the big picture, not ideology

Janet Albrechtsen’s plea for BHP and other big players to openly and vigorously promote capitalism’s virtues is fully supported (“Here is the speech Mr BHP should have delivered”, 31/7).

Steel and electrical power are the backbone of the modern world without which our civilisation could not exist. As a leading supplier of the raw materials behind these fundamentals, BHP has a duty — not just to its shareholders — to the modern world to oppose ideologically driven extremists happy to put emotions and ideologies ahead of the bigger picture and the welfare of billions.

We all want to protect the planet, but we need not destroy the modern world to do it and must oppose those who would do so.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

Sincere thanks to Janet Albrechtsen for that revelatory “speech” that BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie should have delivered to his shareholders. It was clever of Albrechtsen to turn Mackenzie’s virtue signalling and his philosophical nod to “existential” risks to the planet from fossil fuels on its head, especially since the CEO had also flagged encouragement to customers to reduce emissions and tying executive pay packets to success in reducing the release of greenhouse gases. Give us pride in the international achievements of the country’s flagship company and ditch the obsequious surrender to the climate alarmism and the warmists.

Helen Derrick, Sherwood, Qld

As a minor shareholder of BHP it is comforting to know that Janet Albrechtsen has a method of speaking common sense direct to the BHP board. Perhaps she could ask them how they can justify the Drax coal-fired power station in Britain now burning biomass without incurring CO2 penalties. If there is a CO2 reduction it is certainly equalised by processing and transportation (of the biomass) from the US. Perhaps executives should read Gregory Wrightstone’s Inconvenient Facts before making statements such as that made by the chief executive of BHP.

Arthur Hall, Eight Mile Plains, Qld

Two years ago in a speech to the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London, Tony Abbott challenged Australian corporate virtue signallers, noting that our businesses campaign for same-sex marriage but not for economic reform, while BHP lives off the coal industry that it now wants to disown. Indeed, rather than fantasise about what Mr BHP should be saying, Janet Albrechtsen should go with reality and give credit to Abbott.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

Move aside, Andrew Mackenzie. BHP has the perfect candidate for a chief executive who understands that management’s first obligation is to its shareholders. Janet Albrechtsen would be a breath of fresh air at her first BHP annual general meeting.

John Devers, Buderim, Qld

Janet Albrechtsen has a satirical but barbed dig at BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie who knows only too well that coal is the fuel of the Industrial Revolution and the early 20th century.

He also knows that coal is rapidly being overtaken by renewable energy sources, notably solar — of which Australia has an unlimited free supply — in every respect, including cost to the energy consumer, and does not want BHP being left with huge stranded assets. Mackenzie is phasing BHP out of coal for sensible business, not ideological, reasons.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin, ACT

Does Janet Albrechtsen not accept that the individual she disparages has access to information that suggests the very people she says is his first obligation — shareholders and investors — will be negatively affected by the failing climate?

Does she really think he has been duped? Does she think he is so fearful, so enfeebled that he can be conned? And if that is the case then the captains of industry themselves, are revealed as non-thinkers and wreckers.

As Noam Chomsky said, the problem with capitalism is that its practitioners don’t read; that they are not interested in the world of ideas. When one comes along who demonstrates he is outside that self-serving bubble, Albrechtsen identifies him as an enemy of capitalism.

To ascribe nefarious intent to those who accept the overwhelming evidence of climate change is to be involved in a culture war that is threatening our future.

Chris McKimm, Karangi, NSW