September 8, 2021
The Federal Government must intervene in the interest of economic and national security if woke banks and insurance agencies continue to discriminate against major nation-building projects , Katter’s Australian Party MPs have said.
The KAP is also calling on Aussies concerned about protecting national interests to boycott corporations who deny service to fully-approved coal-related projects.
They said the market, and carefully-considered government policies, should determine the nation’s future energy and industry priorities as opposed to financially-motivated corporations.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said it was outrageous that BMD Constructions had to look overseas to find insurance for its work on on Adani’s Carmichael Rail Network in central Queensland. [1]
The company was rejected by company 22 insurers on largely ideological grounds, including Brisbane-based Suncorp and titans QBE, Allianz, and IAG.
Many of these companies have pledged to cease insuring coal-related projects and electricity generation beyond 2025, and have cited their “responsibility to act on climate change” as the reason.
However coal-fired power stations still supply two-thirds of the country’s energy needs, and the KAP has warned a lack of support from local insurers could make Australian coal projects ripe for the picking by overseas investors not beholden by “wokeness”.
Mr Katter said it was curious the sector’s corporate heavyweights had grown such strong moral codes, given the findings of the recent Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
He said it was everyday Australians who would be hurt by the sector’s refusal to back job and industry-creating projects that were underpinned by significant market demand and had secured all necessary government approvals.
“It is certainly an interesting time for all these insurance companies and banks to discover their moral codes,” Mr Katter said.
“We see callous postcode discrimination when it comes to their products in rural and regional Australia – people can’t get insurance or loans but when it comes down to the desire of inner-city elites, these companies are happy to jump on board.
“Even at huge cost to our economies, jobs and Australia’s national interests.”
Kennedy MP Bob Katter called on coal miners and people who supported the coal industry to boycott the insurance companies who weren’t supporting their jobs.
“If they want to blacklist us then we are going to blacklist them,” he said.
“And we are going to put signs up in the coal mining towns telling people who the blacklisted companies are. Not only will it be insurance companies but others like Coles and Victoria Bitter who are promoting solar over coal.
“The Earth’s temperature has risen 1 degree in 100 years, let’s not lose our minds here. The temperature in Moranbah varies 16 degrees every day.
“With new technologies such as algae we can offset the Co2 from coal-fired power and turn it into a bi-product.”
[1] https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/insurers-hard-stance-on-coalrelated-projects-putting-jobs-at-risk-industry-players-warn/news-story/90df2111c920804d7e2ecc025b0a456a