Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

It has been a civil war, member for Moreton. It may not be the blood on the walls of the leadership challenge in February, where character assessments were granted very regularly but it has been quite a split between the Prime Minister and the relevant ministers, the minister for immigration and the minister for resources. Those ministers are to be congratulated because the policy they have pursued is a good policy. It is the right policy because it will encourage this growth. It is necessary and it is a time, and we do have Labor challenges. We saw in question time those members who claim that somehow you can just uplift all unemployed people and chuck them into mines, showing no understanding of how the mining industry works at all. These necessary skills will ensure these developments go ahead and that there is need for these sorts of arrangements. But what is really important to note is that one of the major reasons more of these arrangements are being sought is the increasing cost for companies to employ in Australia. Because of industrial disputation and because of the empowerment of the unions—and we are seeing that day after day now—we are seeing coalmines in Queensland being shut down. There was a massive industrial disputation last week as the CFMEU used every tactic in the book to take on BHP. Tom Albanese, from Rio Tinto, said last week that when he has been at international conferences he has been approached by investors saying, 'Are you worried that you are now too Australia-exposed?' Mr Albanese made the point that that is embarrassing, and he is right. This record opportunity, this amazing opportunity that Australia has—which is probably a 10-year opportunity, with the growth in our region—is being put at risk because of these government policies. Whether it be the workplace relations policies or the inconsistent taxation policies, they are making it harder for Australian businesses and Australian mining companies to compete.

More worrying is Olympic Dam in South Australia. For many years, the state Labor government has told us how this investment and expansion will be the great saviour and the great opportunity for our economy, and I actually agree with them. I think this is a huge opportunity for the South Australian economy. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the South Australian economy. The Olympic Dam find and the exploration that BHP has embarked upon are of unbelievable proportions. It is one of the biggest mines in the world. When fully dug, the open-cut mine will cover an area the size of the 'square mile' of Adelaide. The six-year burden to get the dirt off before they even get to the ore gives you an understanding of just how big this project is.

The South Australian Labor government and the South Australian Liberal opposition last year worked in conjunction in the parliament to pass the indenture to ensure that the government regulations and the environmental regulations were passed. Of course, the Greens opposed it, which will not shock anybody. Necessarily, they did the work in a bipartisan way to ensure that this project would go ahead for South Australia. Now it is being put at risk by what federal Labor is doing to our economy. It is not just me saying this; it is none other than Jac Nasser, the Chairman of BHP.—I will not say he is a good old-fashioned Labor man, but certainly he has not been someone you could describe as having been, as the Leader of the House would say, a 'Tory' all his life. In a speech Mr Nasser said that there are four reasons why BHP is now giving reconsideration to possible investment in Australia.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

And three of those are directly related to policies that your government, Member for Moreton, is implementing. The first is that development activity has driven higher operational and investment costs. We are increasingly one of the higher cost countries in the world, and I understand that in the next little while there will be some more information from the mining industry in that respect. The second reason is the experience of a much more difficult industrial relations environment, and I quote him directly:

It has not only affected productivity but has resulted in management being unable to operate its business in a fair and consistent way for all stakeholders.

He goes on to describe the industrial disputation that is damaging BHP's coalmines. The third is the changes to taxation arrangements in this country. There is the debate we have had about the mining tax and the ever-changing impact of the mining tax, and, as I mentioned before, the world's biggest carbon tax is just about to start. The fourth reason is, of course, global instability.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Of course, we cannot pin that one on the member for Moreton and his government, but the other three we certainly can.

These are issues which can be fixed. The Labor Party likes to pretend that the mining industry in Australia is somehow separate from the rest of the world and that, unlike other industries, it does not have to compete, that it has this one-off advantage. That is simply not true. The way they are treating the mining industry is like putting Fat Albert on Black Caviar to race at Royal Ascot and expecting it to win. That would be holding it back from its potential, just as this Labor government is holding back our mining industry from its potential internationally. It is a competitive market for global mining capital. It is difficult to compete. Our costs in Australia are much higher than they were just five years ago, and that is making it much harder for big companies like BHP, who expend a lot of money in the first place to get the ore out of the ground, to make those decisions.

Yes, there may be a lot in the pipeline, but there is a big blockage in the pipeline. That blockage is the federal Labor government. The sooner we can get rid of that blockage and put into place laws which encourage productivity in workplaces and restrict the rights of unions to take industrial action over any matter they are concerned by, and the sooner we have a consistent taxation policy and treat this industry in a fairer way, the more we will encourage investment in this necessary industry. That cannot come too soon, because I fear the impact of federal Labor policies will mean we will see BHP make an announcement later in the year seeking an extension on the indenture for the BHP expansion. That will be a great shame for my state because it will mean that the great opportunities that will come, the trickle-down effects of that investment in that place—3,000 direct jobs and the impact of the flow-through to the economy, the expected eight per cent increase in GST—will not flow through, because of decisions that this government is making.

The most insidious part of this budget is that there is no coherent economic plan. It is a budget in which the government is trying to pay off people to increase its primary vote and keep this Prime Minister in office. It is a budget that talks tough about its war on aspiration, yet at the same time there is a little deal with Gina Rinehart on the side, which completely destroys—

See this speech in context