BHP’s plea for energy surety

THE world’s largest miner, BHP, has called on Canberra to find a solution to break the nation’s energy policy paralysis amid a 60 per cent surge in its power costs over the last three years.

With the proposed national energy guarantee sidelined under the new Morrison government, BHP said a solution must now be devised to meet the policy’s original goals of delivering affordable and reliable electricity while meeting emission targets.

“We need an energy policy that will allow for three things: we need to have affordable electricity, we need to have reliable electricity and we need to have energy in a form that is kinder to the environment,” BHP chief financial officer Peter Beaven said yesterday.

“In order for that to happen you need to have legislative underpinning so the investments that are necessary to achieve those three objectives at the same time are in place.

“We thought we supported that and more or less met those three objectives and obviously we look forward to ... the government and the politicians coming up with the solution that we need to have in Australia.”

The mining giant also said it was concerned by the China tariff stoush with the US.

“The world is a little concerned as we are about trade and the tariff war that appears to be in place t,” said Mr Beaven.

“We haven’t seen direct impact on our business but we are also seeing the Chinese are taking steps to mitigate some of the potential negative aspects of that through monetary policy and investment.”