Anthony Albanese has faced an icy reception at the mining industry’s high-profile annual parliamentary dinner, with Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable warning the prime minister that his industrial relations laws are already bringing conflict “to every workplace in every industry”.
Speaking on Monday night alongside Mr Albanese, who warned miners that their ability to benefit from the net zero transition would fail if they embraced conflict over cooperation, Ms Constable said the industry was in a precarious state.
“Reckless” federal government industrial relations reforms, state “royalty raids”, “onerous” looming environmental rules, and high energy costs threatened to derail the nation’s future prosperity and erode existing copper, gold, uranium, coal and iron ore operations, she said.
“The cumulative effect is having a profound impact on the viability of projects, the risk appetite to unlock future projects, and the ability to attract investment,” Ms Constable said.
“Each new regulation, each new tax, additional layer of complexity, and arbitrary decision makes it harder for us to compete against competitors with no such constraints.”
Tensions between mining industry and government
The robust exchange between the mining industry’s peak body and Mr Albanese adds to tensions with the government.
Resources Minister Madeleine King last month accused BHP of “always” railing against Labor policy and refusing to work with union leaders.
Mr Albanese defended his government’s support of the mining industry, including planned critical minerals industry tax credits that the Coalition has said it will oppose.
“In the parliament, I’ve heard some call this ‘corporate welfare’ and ‘billions for billionaires’,” he told the dinner gathering, which included Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Anthony Albanese defended his government’s support of the mining industry. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
“That tough talk tends to drop off as they get closer to workplaces, mines, processing plants and ports.”
“Tax credits built on rewarding success, in areas crucial to our comparative advantage and economic resilience, serve the national interest.”
Ms Constable downplayed the prime minister’s tax credits, saying “all the incentives in the world, all the choruses of support, won’t matter if the basics aren’t right”.
“We need the government to explain why it is so determined to tear up successful workplace arrangements and drag us back to the failed ways of the past,” she said.
“We do want cooperation. We don’t want conflict.
“But under these new workplace laws, conflict has been brought upon us. It is a deliberate design feature of these laws.
“Conflict is coming to every workplace, in every industry, and together we won’t shy away from calling this out.
“Any attack on the Pilbara is an attack on the entire mining sector.
“Just like an attack on Queensland coal revenues is an attack on the entire mining sector.”
Ms Constable warned Australia could not afford a misstep, given the federal budget’s reliance on mining industry taxes and royalties, which added up to $74 billion in 2022-23.
“That is more than any other industry and 40 per cent higher than the banks,’ she said.
“Undermine it at your peril”.
