McKinsey may still be the go-to consultancy for many companies and governments but it is not faring well on legal fronts.

The Weekend Financial Times reports it has just paid another $US230 million to settle remaining claims relating to ‘turbo-charging’ opioid sales. This is on top of $US641.5 million already paid to US states over the issue. The FT says the part McKinsey played is ‘alleged’ but that’s an awful lot of money for an allegation.

They did get a lot of money from the Morrison Government to produce a climate strategy – one which might better have been produced by the CSIRO and Treasury – but not enough to cover this payout and assorted others it has been forced to make.

But Morrison did get lots of good-looking Power Point slides – the defining characteristic of the McKinsey consultancy work.

…..and they still continue to attract new clients. But perhaps some of them ought to consult the book – When McKinsey Came to Town – before any deal is finalised. The blog’s three part review of the book can be found below:

When McKinsey comes to town – Part 1 | Noel Turnbull

McKinsey part 2 – from tobacco and opioids to health care | Noel Turnbull

McKinsey part 3 – from climate change to the NHS | Noel Turnbull

One thing McKinsey didn’t recommend in its work for Morrison was a carbon price. After all it is crazy brave for consultants to recommend something they know the client will reject.

A recent World Bank survey says 23% of the world’s emissions are now covered by a carbon price in 2023. Earlier this month the EU launched a carbon adjustment mechanism (CBAM) which will, by 2026, start to levy a carbon price on all imports to the EU.

Australia still lags behind even Indonesia, which has launched a carbon market, and only has a dodgy emissions trading system inherited from the Morrison Government and now slightly amended.

Perhaps when EU tariffs start to bite on our exports to them we might revisit the carbon price policy a Labor Government introduced and Tony Abbott destroyed. This was not just another of all the policy blunders Australian governments have been guilty of but an act of sheer bastardry and stupidity.