The WA Greens have labelled the Premier’s announcement of a new State Agreement Act for the Pilbara as irresponsible, especially given the fiscal outlook delivered in last week’s budget.
Mining spokesperson Robin Chapple MLC said royalties should have increased across the board according to the different conditions relevant to each industry in the mining sector, however state agreements meant a simple solution was not possible.
“The gold industry has been unfairly targeted by the McGowan Government, despite other players – Iron Ore in particular – pulling in super profits that the people of Western Australia are not getting a fair return on,” Mr Chapple said.
“Now I’ll admit that part of this problem is the lag in our State’s GST share, however state agreement acts have been a disaster in practice for the State in its ability to regulate certain players in the industry.
“They are anti-competitive and they mean that those players who are lucky enough to have signed onto one with the Government of Western Australia have a right to veto any changes to their mining conditions, including royalty rate increases.
“In this context, it is extremely irresponsible for the McGowan government to have signed onto yet another State Agreement Act.
“This Act, once passed, will take the total number of state agreements to 67 and increase the regulatory difficulty over aspects of the Mining industry even further.
“I would like to point out that the WA Greens are the only party who have opposed every single State Agreement Act introduced in this state.”
The WA Greens have said they support measures in the state budget to increase revenue from the mining sector, but that the increase should be across the board and not targeted to individual industries.
“There’s no sugar coating this - the former Liberal National Government left this state in a terrible fiscal mess,” Mr Chapple said.
“The mining sector has to play its part in fixing the state’s finances – especially when they are returning significant profits - but that distribution has to be fair.
“Royalties on large gold miners will go up from 2.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent from January 1 next year; a massive 50% hike. Thankfully the 2,500 ounce exemption, implemented by my colleague Giz Watson, has been kept in place to protect individual prospectors and small miners.
“By contrast Chinese Magnetite producer Citic Pacific continues to get a massive 50% royalty rebate or rate reduction, as do the state's other magnetite miners. How much could be saved simply by removing this one subsidy?
“What I really don’t understand is why there is no royalty increase on other minerals such as Copper, Nickel, Manganese, Lithium, Potash, and in particular Iron Ore.
“Obviously many iron ore miners are sheltered from royalty increases by state agreements – which the WA Greens, for the record, have been the only party to consistently oppose -however these avenues should still be pursued and results achieved through negotiation.
“At the end of the day the former Liberal Government’s is responsible for this fiscal mess, but it must be incumbent upon all of us to help provide the long-term solution; there is no quick fix.”
