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John Quiggin 
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation divided Summit in Port Moresby three of the Five Eyes and Japan yesterday undertook to provide electricity to 70% of the PNG population by 2030. Two of those fronting the US$1.7 billion pledge are heavily backed by Big Coal and in turn heavily support Big Coal. “Australia will initially contribute $25 million to the project and is expected provide more support from a $2 billion Pacific infrastructure fund once the total cost of the project is finalised.” – News
Morrison has often been three word sloganeering of late. Is it next to be Australian jobs and “coal, coal, coal” to power the PNG poor out of poverty?
Can Morrison loudly announce prior to the looming election that it’s to be Australian coal for PNG, or given its Big Coal backers, and given the divided internal state of Morrison’s government, can he announce a green alternative? (A grid expansion would be necessary to expand PNG’s main source of power, hydro, but would also do nicely for coal.)
news.com.au/national/australia-to-spend-25m-as-part-of-international-coalition-to-help-png-build-reliable-electricity-supply/news-story/d7c3f304fcef0595bb46db0a4dd3b1d7
https://www.malaymail.com/s/1694595/outflanking-china-western-allies-pledge-to-provide-electricity-to-png
wtoc.com/2018/11/17/latest-pence-meets-taiwan-delegation-apec-summit/
abc.net.au/news/2018-11-18/australia-joints-multinational-effort-to-improve-png-energy/10508614
Wait a minute… Weren’t spruikers in the past suggesting a PNG Queensland electricity link so PNG hydro could power Australia? My how times change.
The Victorian election is this Saturday and the Liberals’ campaign slogan has been “Get back in Control”. If this sounds familiar, it is because the slogan of the Leave/Brexit side in the 2016 referendum was “Take Back Control”.
It is unlikely that Matthew Guy will successfully harness the same visceral feelings that led to Leave winning the referendum – different country, different issues, different kind of campaign- but it’s interesting that this is his strategy. The spate of terrorist attacks/convictions/arrests in Melbourne in the past couple of weeks could have helped his cause.
JQ this posts’ tenth birthday has not been celebrated.
https://johnquiggin.com/2008/09/27/neoliberalism-defined/
Yes, declaring social democrat may have changed the dates yet I believe many here would love to see a ten year post. And ten into the future.
And wierdly, at the end of comments you have a comment to robots: wrong question.
A clear example of “regulatory capture”: ASIC and the banks. They admit “mistakes”. It is a tight-knit club at the big end of town. Civil servants paid huge salaries to not do their jobs.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/it-was-a-mistake-asic-under-fire-over-botched-investigations-20181123-p50hxt.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed