• News
  • Lifestyle
    • Recipes
    • Video
    • Lotto Results
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Sport
  • Expat Life
  • Move to Australia
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Australian Times News
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • Recipes
    • Video
    • Lotto Results
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Sport
  • Expat Life
  • Move to Australia
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • Recipes
    • Video
    • Lotto Results
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Sport
  • Expat Life
  • Move to Australia
No Result
View All Result
Australian Times News
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Attorney-General targets Market Forces in push against environment groups

Attorney-General Christian Porter singled out Market Forces in a Monday statement that said he was co-ordinating advice across several portfolios on what could be done to protect resource businesses from such activism.

Michelle Grattan by Michelle Grattan
04-11-2019 11:03
in News
Greenpeace members protesting at Newcastle port in 2017, calling on the Commonwealth Bank to stop investing in coal. (Jaz Kaelin/The Conversation)

Greenpeace members protesting at Newcastle port in 2017, calling on the Commonwealth Bank to stop investing in coal. (Jaz Kaelin/The Conversation)

The government has the activist group Market Forces squarely in its sights as it considers ways to stop environmental organisations persuading financial and other businesses to boycott companies in the mining sector.

It is also targeting funders of class actions, in its proposed crackdown on those running climate change campaigns that hit firms.

Attorney-General Christian Porter singled out Market Forces in a Monday statement that said he was co-ordinating advice across several portfolios on what could be done to protect resource businesses from such activism.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday condemned “an escalating trend towards a new form of secondary boycotts” which had potentially serious economic consequences, especially for regional economies.

“Environmental groups are targeting businesses and firms who provide goods or services to firms they don’t like, especially in the resources sector,” Morrison told the Queensland Resources Council.


Also see: Greta Thunberg: What might Lily and Abbey Morrison say to their dad, the prime minister, about the Climate Change activist?


Market Forces was launched in 2013, and is affiliated with Friends of the Earth. The organisation’s website says it “exposes” institutions, such as banks, superannuation funds and governments that are financing environmentally destructive projects.

AlsoRead...

Australian death records underestimate the association between heat and mortality

As heatwaves become more extreme, which jobs are riskiest?

25 January 2021
Auslan is the first language of many Deaf Australians

COVID has brought Auslan into the spotlight, but it would be wrong to treat the language as a hobby or fad

25 January 2021

Market Forces has lobbied heavily against Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine in central Queensland. Its website lists the companies it says have links to the project, and asks supporters to contact those companies to demand they cut ties.

A 2017 protest against the Commonwealth Bank over its then-links to mining giant Adani. Tracey Nearmy/AAP

The organisation’s chief executive Julien Vincent hit back at the government on Monday, saying that where it saw something it did not like “its response is to get it shut down”.

“We simply allow people to make informed decisions on who they do business with,” Vincent said.

“That’s a right that we thought, until recently, that this government was prepared to uphold”.

But Porter said it was “simply not OK” for any Australian business to be targeted by groups seeking to do it financial harm “when all they are doing is working in an industry like mining and resources that a small number of domestic and international activists have an ideological objection to.

“There are a growing number of examples where we have seen radical activist groups like Market Forces that try and impose their political will on companies across the country through widespread, co-ordinated harassment and threats of boycotts,” he said.

The government was looking at multiple options, across portfolios, Porter said, and the work would be prepared urgently.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has announced the government will try to prevent activist groups from initiating boycotts against companies. BIANCA DE MARCHI/AAP

The government was also considering regulatory action against “the growing presence of litigation funders who are receiving disproportionately large shares of payments in class action litigation which is becoming increasingly politicised by a focus on companies that operate in the mining and resources sector”.

Casting the net even wider, Porter said the government would consider other areas of activists’ “lawfare” which was “designed to delay, frustrate and cause unnecessary expense to mining and other legitimate commercial projects and businesses”.

Secondary boycotts are already outlawed under the competition and consumer legislation but there is an exemption where the dominant reason is for environmental or consumer protection.

An obvious course for the government would be to seek to remove the exemption. Another option would be to remove the tax deductibility status of groups.

Labor has accused Morrison of “virtue signalling” in his planned attack on activist groups.

_____________________________________________________

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Tags: miningpolitics
DMCA.com Protection Status

SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER

Terms and Conditions

CURRENCY ZONE

Australian Forex

Don't Miss

SET FOR LIFE UK Lotto Results – Monday 25 January 2021

by Sonja Baartman
25 January 2021
Set For Life UK Lotto Results
Set For Life

Set For Life, £10,000 every month for 30 years

Read more

Three reasons why it is better to use compatible ink

by Alan Aldridge
25 January 2021
Three reasons why it is better to use compatible ink
Technology

Have you been considering compatible ink for a while but don’t know whether it is a better alternative to genuine...

Read more

Who is Alejandro Betancourt?

by Alan Aldridge
25 January 2021
Who is Alejandro Betancourt?
Lifestyle

Alejandro Betancourt is one of Venezuela's leading entrepreneurs, representing the country on the global stage in business. But who exactly...

Read more

COVID has brought Auslan into the spotlight, but it would be wrong to treat the language as a hobby or fad

by The Conversation
25 January 2021
Auslan is the first language of many Deaf Australians
News

The Deaf Society and Deaf Services reports enrolments in Auslan courses have risen by more than 400% since the pandemic...

Read more

Monday & Wednesday Lotto Results for Monday, 25 January 2021

by Sonja Baartman
25 January 2021
Monday & Wednesday Lotto Results
The Lott

There's big money on the line Monday & Wednesday, $4 million! Here are your Monday & Wednesday Lotto results for...

Read more

Low-paid British workers more than twice as likely to lose jobs

by Mike Simpson
25 January 2021
Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay
News

New study shows how the Covid-19 pandemic is ‘dramatically exacerbating inequalities in the world of work’ in the UK.

Read more

It’s not just cricket: Australia Day isn’t the commercial winner it used to be

by The Conversation
25 January 2021
Identity commerce
News

Australia Day used to be an obvious and uncontroversial occasion for brands to endear themselves to Australian consumers. No longer.

Read more
Load More

Copyright © Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
australiantimes.co.uk is a division of Blue Sky Publications Ltd. Reproduction without permission prohibited. DMCA.com Protection Status

  • About us
  • Write for Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact us
  • T&Cs, Privacy and GDPR
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Lifestyle
    • Recipes
    • Video
    • Lotto Results
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Sport
  • Expat Life
  • Move to Australia

Copyright © Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
australiantimes.co.uk is a division of Blue Sky Publications Ltd. Reproduction without permission prohibited. DMCA.com Protection Status