Axed Climate Change Authority chairman Grant King faced integrity probe

Outgoing Climate Change Authority chairman Grant King was subjected to an integrity and conflict of interest inquiry after he backed calls for Australia to consider nuclear power.

Grant King. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Outgoing Climate Change Authority chairman Grant King was subjected to an integrity and conflict of interest inquiry after he backed calls for Australia to consider nuclear power in its future energy mix and supported plans to store carbon emissions from fossil fuel production.

The inquiry into Mr King and the CCA board found there were some failures in the system governing conflict of interest and was part of a critical campaign against the CCA for its involvement of people from industry and continued commitment to carbon capture to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Mr King was not found to have any conflict of interest.

The Australia Institute, which lodged the complaint with Energy Minister Chris Bowen, warned that the new requirements and register of interests would apply to all CCA board members including the incoming chairman.

No one has suggested any impropriety or wrongdoing by Mr King or the board members.

Mr Bowen is controversially replacing Mr King a year before his four-year contract expires in 2025 with former NSW Liberal treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean, who said on Monday he had ruled out nuclear energy in NSW because it was too ­expensive.

“I didn’t want to bankrupt the state and … put those huge costs on to families,” he said after Anthony Albanese announced Mr Kean’s appointment as part of his attack on Peter Dutton’s plan to introduce nuclear power.

The CCA will play a key role in implementing the Albanese government’s carbon emissions program and achieving its 2030 and 2035 targets of carbon emission reductions as the Prime Minister opposes the introduction of nuclear energy and declared he has no plans to change the ban on it.

In an address to the Minerals Council of Australia in June 2021 Mr King said there was no “good or bad energy” and the aim was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Mr King said he had become “increasingly frustrated” by the debate about what energy sources should be in the future fuel mix and said it was only important that they be carbon neutral.

“There’s still a great desire to define good fuels and bad fuels. And that’s not going to help us get there – we need absolutely everything working for us,” he said.

“And that also includes nuclear power. So if we want to get into a debate, it’s important that we throw nuclear into the mix and say Australia is going to have to come to grips with that issue and is going to have to decide whether or not it lifts that regulatory prohibition and allows the innovation and investment that’s now happening, particularly more modular reactor technology, to be applicable here in Australia,” Mr King said.

Mr King also backed further work on carbon capture and storage technology, saying it could help Australia’s thermal generation fleet become the lower-cost option for carbon-free energy.

But Mr King’s “agnostic” approach to dealing with fossil fuel emissions, positions on companies dealing with carbon credits and renewable energy and previous posts as managing director of Origin Energy and a former Business Council of Australia president, drew criticism from The Australia Institute and Greens senators.

In May last year the Australia Institute asked Mr Bowen to investigate “potential conflicts of interest” at the CCA and particularly Mr King. The letter to Mr Bowen also said members of the CCA board should not also be employed by companies or organisations that could be affected by the CCA’s recommendations. After a departmental review Mr Bowen told The Australia Institute “aspects” of the regulations about potential conflicts of interest “were not in keeping with requirements” and changes had been made.