Chart of the day: Ten years of diesel rebates almost pays for a new truck

Mostly I try to avoid pushing buttons too hard. As Bec Colvin so correctly pointed out on the Energy Insiders podcast two years ago, the harder you push the harder the pushback. No doubt you could make a joke but i don’t do them these days either.

But sometimes the image is strong and the spirit is weak. I’m guilty of being a bit negative about BHP and Rio Tinto’s efforts. I think BHP’s Mike Henry made comments about Australian Energy prices that were entirely unjustified. But BHP and Rio do pay a lot of tax and iron ore is Australia’s biggest export so there is a case for making haste slowly.

Even so we will fall behind. It’s now widely accepted that mining productivity is going backwards. And just going through “I’m a tough manager and I can sack people” isn’t a long term solution.

Electrification is. Look at what China is doing, or as Amandine Denis-Ryan points out in the latest episode of Energy Insiders – look what BHP is doing in Chile, or what miners are doing in Canada.

We need to help BHP and Rio have some courage.