Media Connections – Professor Robert Perrons, QUT

09/10/2025

Professor Robert Perrons at QUT recently provided some commentary in the media as follows:

 

Aurizon sale of Rail Network (August 2025)

Much of the media’s focus on the energy transition tends to be on energy markets in and of themselves. But therein lies one of the challenges confronting us throughout this journey: the global energy system is so large and complex that it is intimately connected to lots of other parts of the world economy.  Aurizon’s rail network is one of those “other parts.”  As the energy transition gathers pace, having a business model so closely tied to coal is resulting in price volatility, lower profit margins, and exposure to more risk for Aurizon.  The resulting pieces for both interviews can be found here:

7News interview on 22 Aug 2025, broadcast that same day:

https://youtu.be/3Fm-OBoGjgU

ABC Radio interview on 21 Aug 2025, broadcast on Aug. 22:

https://youtu.be/KHoNLoBzV9g

 

Peabody Acquisition (October 2025)

Peabody Energy agreed last year to buy a handful of metallurgical coal mines from Anglo American but, in the wake of a fire at one of the mines, they are now trying to withdraw from the deal.  In this interview, Professor Perrons suggests that Peabody’s motivations have little to do with the reasons they have actually put forward, and have far more to do with the fact that a steep decline in coal prices has left Peabody feeling like they overpaid for the assets.  The interview resulted in both an ABC News radio feature and a thorough amount of comment from from Rob being quoted in a news article on their web site: