Nationals’ WA hopeful backs Labor’s ‘billions for billionaires’ mining policy

Nationals candidate for Bullwinkel Mia Davies has broken ranks with her own party and Coalition partners by publicly backing Labor’s flagship critical mineral and hydrogen production tax incentive policy, once dismissed by shadow treasurer Angus Taylor as “billions for billionaires”.

The former WA Nationals leader lamented the Coalition’s decision to oppose the policy shortly after it was announced in the 2024 budget and said she wished she’d been in the Coalition party room at that time to make the case for the $13.7 billion worth of tax breaks from a WA perspective.

Nationals candidate for Bullwinkel Mia Davies (second from left) with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie (cente) and Liberal candidate for Bullwinkel Matt Moran on Friday.Credit: James Brickwood

“It’s a well thought-through and sensible policy position, and it’s well-supported by the [WA resources] sector, and we need not to be making decisions from an east coast perspective when it comes to what is a world-class mining province,” Davies said.

“We need people who have actually worked in it, understood it ... sitting in that party room.

“My only lament at this stage is that I wish I was in the room when they were making the decision.”

Davies supported the Labor policy as a state MP alongside the WA Liberals, but her continued public support for the incentives during the federal election campaign may raise eyebrows within the Coalition given its formal position to repeal the laws.

She is currently engaged in a tight three-cornered contest with Liberal candidate Matt Moran and Labor’s Trish Cook to become the first MP of the new seat of Bullwinkel.

Davies said if elected on May 3, she would urge her Coalition colleagues to reconsider their position.

The WA contingent of federal Liberal MPs may have made the case for the credits in the party room meeting – but it wasn’t heard, Davies said.

“What I didn’t like is that from a Coalition perspective, it was discounted from the very first day and I know that the industry and sector had put forward some pretty reasonable arguments about why these were needed,” she said.

“I saw the outcome of their discussion in the Liberal party room was that the federal treasurer came out and said it’s ‘billions for billionaires’ ... the leadership made a decision that is, I don’t think, aligned to what most West Australians and the leadership of the resource sector had been reasonably asking for.”

Under the scheme, companies can get a refundable tax offset of 10 per cent of the costs of processing critical minerals and hydrogen in Australia from 2027 to lure more downstream processing of commodities produced here.

Davies stressed that Labor was still a worse friend to the mining industry than her Coalition colleagues.

“I’d rather be having the conversation with a Peter Dutton and David Littleproud Coalition than some of the things that we see coming from Labor in terms of industrial relations, in terms of the nature positive legislation,” she said.

“They are fundamentally ripping the guts out of an industry that needs to be getting on and getting on with the job to create jobs and future wealth.”

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce was happy to hear of Davies’ support.

“I really appreciate that Mia is still holding faith with it because it’s a good policy, that’s the truth of it,” he said.

“It’s an area of policy that focuses on realising more value from our minerals, and right now it is the only policy that does that.”

Pearce said he supported the Coalition’s resources sector announcements to date but said in terms of creating a downstream processing industry in WA, the production tax incentives were the only thing that could do that.

“The Coalition saying they’ll repeal it is basically undermining the signal that the federal government’s trying to send to the market of the companies, which is, if you invest, there’s the potential, there’s the incentive in place that you can be confident will be there.”

WA Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash stood firm that Labor’s tax incentives were duds “designed to benefit their union mates.”

“Peter Dutton and the Coalition know there is a better way to support our resources sector rather than Labor’s approach to just handpick a few ‘winners’ during a cost of living crisis while the rest of the mining industry is in freefall under Labor’s burdensome red and green tape and draconian industrial relations laws,” she said.

“The Albanese Government is strangling the resources industry, even in the last week promising further green tape in an effort to gain votes from inner-city Greens voters on the east coast.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visited Perth last week, where he detailed his support for the state’s resources sector.

The ‘Plan for a Strong Resources Industry’ includes a commitment to abandon nature positive legislation and expanding the critical minerals list to include uranium zinc, bauxite, alumina, aluminium, potash, phosphate and tin.

Included in that is $3.5 billion for a 35-year exploration to map mineral deposits across the country, restarting the junior minerals exploration incentive with $100 million, hastening federal environmental approvals by restricting bureaucrats using things like ‘stop the clock’ provisions, and allowing fast-track foreign investment review assessments for mining projects.

WA Senator Michaelia Cash was approached for comment.

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