Retiring Qantas chairman criticises ‘abominable’ switch to renewables

Qantas chairman takes parting swipe at government’s botching of the transition from coal and the impact it’s now having on customers.

Retiring Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford has criticised the government’s management of the transition from coal to renewable energy. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Retiring Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford has described as “abominable” the mismanagement by governments of the transition from coal-fired power to renewable energy, which has dramatically pushed up power prices for businesses and consumers.

Speaking to The Weekend Australian before his retirement from Qantas after overseeing a massive turnaround in the fortunes of the airline with chief executive Alan Joyce, Mr Clifford said he believed coal and gas-fired power plants would still underpin the nation’s energy supplies for many years.

“The reality is the population like the idea of renewables. That is understandable. But they also want reliable, despatchable, affordable power. That means for Australia ... coal and gas are going to be part of the mix for decades to come,’’ he said.

“How have we managed that transition? As a businessman, you’d have to say it has been appalling. We have leapt into renew­ables without looking at the requirement of those four things that I mentioned.”

“We have to manage that transition more effectively.

“We have gone in Victoria from having some of the lowest electricity costs in the world to some of the highest costs, and that is abominable,’’ he said.

The nation’s energy policy was thrown into turmoil in August when then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison, leading to the collapse of the national energy guarantee that had been supported by the states and even in principle by the Labor Party.

The Morrison government has since said its focus was putting lower energy bills and more reliable power ahead of carbon emissions. Last week, federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the government was committed to working with the states and territories to work towards imposing an obligation for reliable electricity supply on retailers “as soon as practicable”.

He also said he would work to “stop the big rip-offs” by energy companies.

Mr Clifford said Mr Morrison had “connected well with the general public” since taking over from Mr Turnbull.

“He is tackling some of the ­issues which are of concern. I hope and I think it is really important that he hasn’t let the tax issue (go off the agenda).

“It is important we have competitive tax (rates), both corporately and individually,’’ he said.

But he was wary of the political instability that had rocked the ­nation too often in recent years.

“I have just been in the US. I have to say it is really disruptive. Put aside just the recent (leadership change). (Before that) it was five PMs in five years.

“That is not good. We have disruption in the way the public service runs because ministers chop and change and policies duck and weave. I hope we can see some stability,’’ he said.

In the interview, Mr Clifford said he was also worried about escalating trade tensions between the US and China, which the Reserve Bank has argued represent a growing external risk to Aus­tralia’s economic outlook.

“Trade is a way of interlocking people such that conflicts don’t occur. So you are too interdependent on one another. I hope that ultimately it gets resolved,’’ he said of the dispute, which has led to the US and China levying tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s goods.