Op-Ed: We need clarity from the LNP on Queensland’s coal royalty debate

It’s time for LNP Opposition Leader David Crisafulli to tell Queenslanders what he thinks about the new coal royalty regime, writes Daily Mercury reporter Duncan Evans

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos JUNE 15, 2023: Opposition leader David Crisafulli during the parliament sitting in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Queensland’s coal royalty war reached a fever pitch this week after Treasurer Cameron Dick’s budget revealed a staggering $15.3bn revenue haul from the Bowen Basin’s black gold.

Mr Dick has set about spraying cash all over the place, what he calls a “rich reward” for his adamantine stand against the relentless fury of “the mining lobby”.

The resource sector’s most passionate defender, QRC boss Ian Macfarlane, isn’t mollified by the big spend and warns bluntly our budgets will deteriorate in the near future from reduced investment in mining.

But there is one actor in the mix who remains unacceptably silent on this fundamental debate.

The LNP.

Will Mr Crisafulli finally stand up and tell us what he thinks?

Burdekin MP Dale Last has said an LNP government would “consult” with industry if elected in 2024.

But what does that mean exactly?

Will the LNP maintain Mr Dick’s new royalty structure, with its three new tiers, or not?

And if not, what will the change look like? Six tiers, but pegged at lower rates?

Mining is a massively complex enterprise and the remarkable men and women who make it happen deserve to know the answers to these questions.

The rest of us need to know because as the budget demonstrates, our lives rise and fall on coal.