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FutureCoal: Michelle Manook Delivers Powerful Address at National Press Club

 

 

November 19, 2025 - On Tuesday , November 18, Michelle Manook, President, FutureCoal, delivered a major address to the National Press Club of Australia. It was broadcast nationally on ABC and attended by government, industry leaders, diplomats and the full press gallery.  It’s one of the biggest public policy platforms in Australia, and the response has been extremely positive.

For a U.S. audience, the themes will feel familiar. Michelle argued that Australia is now facing the same challenges the U.S. and Europe hit earlier: rising system costs, tightening reliability margins, and a public increasingly confused about why energy bills keep climbing. 
Her core message was that the global debate has become too narrow and too ideological, drifting away from the technology-neutral foundations of the Paris Agreement.
She also underscored that energy security is now the central test of transition policy. No major economy is running reliably on wind and solar alone, and countries across Asia are integrating modernised, lower-emissions coal as strategic partners to renewables, nuclear, gas and emerging technologies. 
A PDF of the speech can be found here and a link for the video can be found here. It's definitely worth a watch!