PM Malcolm Turnbull is lagging behind corporate chiefs when it comes to some key issues. Picture: Kym Smith

IT’S a jolt to see Australia’s no-nonsense, hard-headed business chiefs looking more daring on contentious social and environmental policy than the Prime Minister and his crew.

Malcolm Turnbull showed by his beaming grin Thursday he was enjoying being the big ideas leader on the back of his Snowy pump hydro feasibility study announcement.

But that sentiment of political boldness faded significantly when it was placed against the stands taken by senior corporate figures on two issues the Turnbull Government cannot manage.

Big business called for introduction of an emissions intensity scheme to reduce carbon output from power generators, and for legislation to approve same-sex marriage.

The marriage equality contribution from the chief executives of 30 companies immediately riled Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

“If people want to enter politics, then do that, but don’t do it from the office overlooking the harbour on multi-million dollar fees each year,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“I just think it’s high time these people pulled back from these moralistic stances and we’d be a better society without them.”

It was a savage — and later repeated — rebuke of executives who dared disagree with a minister, had personal views, and worked for a living.

Mr Turnbull had to interrupt his Snowy celebrations to reassure his party the policy remained for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage before any legislation appeared.

Then there was another matter on which Mr Turnbull once was a high-profile advocate but has recently tempered his public views.

Late last year the Liberal Party right wing soiled itself after Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg confirmed an emissions intensity scheme might be evaluated.

Not implemented, just reviewed within a range of options.

The Prime Minister made no substantial move to do anything but watch the panic and the inevitable, official removal of a scheme from that range of options.

But now the Business Council of Australia alongside BHP Billiton, Origin Energy, AGL and the National Farmers Federation have united in an appeal for an emissions intensity scheme to be put back into contention.

The appeal was based on a need for certainty of investment and a need to encourage electricity generation producing less carbon.

Support for improved emissions and renewable power sources isn’t a new interest for large companies.

The National Australia Bank is the largest facilitator of investment in renewables of the Big Four banks, and it has been seeking what it calls “the orderly transition to a low carbon economy through investment in renewable energy”.

Since 2003, NAB has committed $5.8 billion in funding, arranged $23.8 billion in finance, and closed over 85 deals here and overseas.

It is not pursuing this investment out of altruism. It wants to make money from it, and has.

It is well ahead of the Turnbull government in this policy area, and so are other corporate big fish.

An emissions intensity scheme essentially measures the average carbon output of power generators. Generators who exceed that average have to buy credits from those below the line.

It is a market incentive to reduce carbon output, and favours renewables such as solar and wind turbines.

However, the appeal by the big companies has not been incentive enough for the Prime Minister to do more than point again and again to his pump hydro feasibility study.

When big business calls for action on policy, and gets no response, it usually means the government is impotent.