The original sin for why they are still trying coal is likely the attempt at confederation in doing this state level - which has the end result of vastly dispro

The original sin for why they are still trying coal is likely the attempt at confederation in doing this state level - which has the end result of vastly disproportionate power to parochial interests which under any sane system would be told to piss off and get a sense of priorities. I am no expert in Australian politics beyond the mindbogglingly stupid IT decisions but I have heard of similar reasons behind their own bad decisions. The main reason they infrastructure is currently on coal is ironically because they did invest in infrastructure in the past and those decisions are usually best done in advance as funding is spread out over vast periods of time. Needless to say the infastructure became outdated and the advancement wasn't quite as graceful like telecom companies who could make an outright profit during an upgrade by laying down some fiber and ripping out and selling all of their old copper. They do have a counterpart in many cases of 'burn natural gas instead to save money and do it cleaner'.