QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane visits Rockhampton

He may be retiring as the face of Queensland’s billion-dollar resources sector but Ian Macfarlane’s advocacy is far from over – especially when it comes to coal royalties and the threat to mining towns.

Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane.

Ian MacFarlane may be taking a step back from his role as chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council, but he’s confident his work in advocating for the industry will continue when his successor steps in.

Regulatory uncertainties, such as coal royalties, and the future of the industry were hot topics when he visited Rockhampton on Thursday to speak at the Bowen Basin Mining Club Luncheon.

The resources sector supports up to 60,000 jobs in the Fitzroy region, which encompasses the Rockhampton, Gladstone, Central Highlands, Livingstone and Banana local government areas and injects billions into the economy.

However, Mr Macfarlane said Queensland’s coal royalty tax was acting as a “handbrake” on the state’s resources sector.

Mr Macfarlane has been campaigning against the coal royalties increase saying it impacted the long-term viability of the industry and investment in the state.

“We’re seeing blowback from investors, not just in Australia but around the world, about the fact the royalty tax was changed without consultation of the industry,” he said.

“They (the State Government) brought in a royalty tax that, they said, would raise $800 million last year and it raised $5.7 billion and that’s on top of that $9.7b the old royalty tax regime raised.

“They raised way more than they expected and that’s money that’s not just come out of the pockets of shareholders and mums and dads that have invested in those companies, but it’s money that has come out of Central Queensland, so it’s money that is not coming back here and that’s creating some issues in the local community.”

Since the coal royalty changes were announced last year, Mr Macfarlane has been campaigning against the increase saying it impacted the long-term viability of the industry and investment in the state.

Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane.

He said without a thriving resources sector, a “tidal wave” of suffering would rip through communities, such as Rockhampton, like it did when the slump of 2013 happened where house prices crashed.

Mr Macfarlane said he wanted the government to sit down with the QRC and talk to them to understand the impact the high royalties were having on investor confidence and on mining in the state.

“Royalty taxes (when the new regime was brought in) basically tripled, that just makes Queensland so uncompetitive,” he said.

“Companies are saying they’re just not going to invest in mines in Queensland now and it’s not just coal mines it’s minerals, rare earths and new metals … those investment decisions which should have been made now, which create mining in five or 10 years' time, will suddenly see there’s no new mines because those decisions weren’t made in 2023 and on that basis there won’t be the jobs for Central Queenslanders.

“We’ve already seen Glencore and BHP cancel projects in Central Queensland, so we’re worried people don’t realise that decisions made today are for mines in five or 10 years time. The industry might look in good shape now, but it’s in the future we’re worried about.”

But despite the challenges in the resources sector, Mr Macfarlane said the future of the industry was “bright” with companies already exploring ways they can be part of the transition into renewables such as the use of hydrogen powered vehicles and solar power.

He said materials such as metallurgical coal and other materials like copper, zinc and aluminium would also be needed to build the infrastructure and batteries for renewable projects.

“Rockhampton is a central hub, people like to live here, and the opportunities for mining in Queensland are enormous,” he said.

“Coal, particularly coking coal to make steel, will be important for the rest of the century because you can’t make steel without coking coal.

“The you move into copper, aluminium and zinc all the things we mine in Queensland … towns like Rockhampton, Mackay and Gladstone will be the service centres for those regions … are a mining country, we do mining better than any other country in the world.”

In June it was announced Mr Macfarlane would retire from his role as QRC chief executive at the end of the year after seven years at the helm.

After retiring from the role he will continue to serve on the board of Woodside Energy, CSIRO, SoMAC, the fibre composites CRC, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise and as a member of UQ’s Rural Clinical School Toowoomba Community Advisory Committee.

He also recently accepted expanded roles on the board of CSIRO and TSBE and has taken on a new role assisting St Vincent de Paul in a social housing project in Toowoomba and the Western Downs.