I always find it hard to get to the truth in a lot of this.
One item i found today was
http://www.minerals.org.au/file_uplo...s_3March17.pdf
Which would indicate subsidies for coal "associated with local electricity generation" is rather small. Other documents indicate subsidies associated with exporting are much larger ( a bit like how we gave away our LNG for a pittance )
It will be interesting to see tonights 4 corners where Glencore, a major coal exporter is forensically investigated.
There may be massive back door subsidies ( ie the govt turns a blind eye to whats going on ) but thats very hard to prove.
Either way, when i bought my first PC ( a 4MHz 286 with floating point chip and a 40MB hard drive ) it cost a relative fortune.
Flat screen TVs cost a fortune when first introduced, as did mobile phones. ( I actually had the pleasure of carrying the separate battery unit for a manager with a very early "mobile phone"
)
Look at the cost of these items now??
Renewables may cost more up front now, but the costs will come down over time, and at that point, it will be interesting to watch the unholy scramble of the "big businesses" to try and prevent people getting cheap access to it.
Andrew