Policy Chaos Risks a Poorer Australia
25 September 2026
IGCC members remain focused on the long-term economic fundamentals: investment certainty, energy reliability, and global competitiveness.
Our members support stable policies that continue Australia’s progress against those fundamentals.
Those include the Climate Change Act, the 2030, 2035, and 2050 emissions reduction targets, renewable energy targets, the Safeguard Mechanism, and the Future Made in Australia agenda.
Support across parliament for those policies and plans would underpin the Australian and global investor confidence that supports capital investment in Australian energy and industry. Proposals to repeal key climate and energy policies increase uncertainty across the economy. This risks higher financing costs at a time when Australia needs significant private investment to maintain its competitive advantage. The result could be slower economic growth, weaker productivity, and higher costs for consumers and businesses.
IGCC’s members, including the country’s largest superannuation and retail funds, invest to maximise the financial benefits for their almost 15 million beneficiaries, a number equivalent to almost every worker in Australia.
IGCC members’ support for the continuation of policies noted above, and an orderly path to net zero emissions in Australia and around the world by 2050, is based on the best financial interests of those beneficiaries.
As well as the risk to Australia’s domestic economic fundamentals posed by repealing the policies, there would be a significant long-term cost to Australia’s economy and Australians’ livelihoods should the country fail to manage the physical risks of climate change.
$6.8 trillion would be wiped from Australia’s economy between now and 2050 if global warming continues on its current trajectory, according to a conservative estimate from the world’s central banks, cutting thousands of dollars a year out of the pockets of Australians. The average superannuation fund would produce 40% lower returns to members’ retirement accounts.
Without a serious and credible plan to manage these risks, every Australian will be worse off.
Read more about IGCC’s policy priorities, and further context for them.