Minerals boss Tania Constable says Labor is bringing conflict to every workplace in Australia

The nation’s peak mining lobby has issued a bullish warning, accusing Anthony Albanese of deliberately bringing conflict to every workplace in Australia and threatening the economy through arbitrary environmental decisions.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable, left, with Anthony Albanese at the gala dinner in Canberra on Monday night. Picture: AAP

Miners have ­accused Anthony Albanese of starting a new class war by deliberately bringing ­conflict to every workplace through “reckless” industrial ­relations laws and threatening the economy through arbitrary environmental decisions that risk the viability of ­nation-building projects.

The Minerals Council of Australia on Monday night warned of a return to the 1970s era of industrial warfare in the Pilbara region, the last major dispute that almost crippled resources exports.

Miners also challenged Jim Chalmers’ claim to keeping the economy out of recession, declaring the mining sector was responsible for 10 per cent of the nation’s GDP and warned attacks on its profitability would jeopardise Australians’ standard of living further.

The peak mining lobby launched its attack on the Prime Minister at its annual dinner at Parliament House in Canberra after resources executives were left stunned by revelations Mr Albanese’s address to the event would warn the sector that the world would pass Australia by if miners embraced conflict over co-operation. Miners took the comments as a declaration of war against the sector.

The escalation of tensions between Canberra and mining companies comes as the Coalition flags new indigeneity definitions to clarify which Indigenous groups had legitimate standing during consultations on resources projects to end what it claims was unchecked “activist lawfare”.

Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald, in a speech to the mining sector on Wednesday, will reveal that the Coalition in government would legislate to provide legal clarity over groups identified as having legitimate indigenous heritage claims over resources projects. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek recently used a contested Indigenous claim over proposed tailings dam site to effectively scuttle the $1bn McPhillamys gold mine near Blayney in NSW.

Mr Albanese, in extracts of his address the Minerals Council dinner released on Sunday night, warned the mining sector: “If we hesitate, or hang back, if we let points of disagreement delay us, if we abandon co-operation for conflict, if we listen to those who spend all their time talking Australia down and saying our companies can’t compete and our workers shouldn’t try, then the world will go right past us.”

Albanese and Constable on Monday night. Picture: Jane Dempster

His remarks followed Resources Minister Madeleine King’s unexpected attack on BHP for opposing Labor’s workplace laws.

In an extraordinary rebuttal to Mr Albanese’s foreshadowed speech, Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable directly blamed Mr Albanese for triggering the conflict and said Labor risked a return to the mining tax wars between the big resources companies and the Gillard government.

“We do want co-operation, we don’t want conflict,” Ms Constable told a packed mining dinner attended by Mr Albanese and other senior cabinet ministers.

“But under these new workplace laws, conflict has been brought upon us. It is a deliberate design feature of these laws. ­Conflict is coming to every ­workplace, in every industry. And together we won’t shy away from calling this out.”

Ms Constable said the sector was under siege and being punished by the Albanese government for its success through a stream of restrictive policies, “reckless” industrial relations changes, raids on mining royalties, new regulation and the “looming threat of onerous and arbitrary environmental approvals”.

Directly addressing Mr Albanese in her speech, before the Prime Minister’s own address to the event, Ms Constable said it was simplistic to expect the mining sector to shoulder the burden of a profoundly changed policy environment.

Constable during her speech on Monday night.

“You could forgive our industry for feeling like it is under siege, or even punished for its success,” she said. “Australian mining has faced a steady stream of restrictive policy interventions, from a series of reckless industrial relations changes, and royalty raids, complex regulatory changes, and the looming threat of onerous and arbitrary environmental approvals.

“Prime Minister, the environmental approvals process must be sorted out. We have stubbornly high energy prices, at a time when our energy system is the underlying pacesetter for our economy. All while dealing with geopolitical threats to our key commodities and minerals.”

Ms Constable said the cumulative effect was “a profound impact on the viability of projects, the risk appetite to unlock future projects, and the ability to attract investment”. “Each new regulation, each new tax, additional layer of complexity, and arbitrary decision makes it harder for us to compete against competitors with no such constraints,” she said. “At the top of the list of threats are industrial relations changes that overlook the unique demands and contributions of our workforce.”

Senator McDonald, in her speech to the minerals sector, will reveal the Coalition would seek to apply a new test Indigenous test more broadly.

“One of the greatest threats to future investment in our resources sector is activist lawfare,” she will say.

“Activist lawfare is playing on the natural will and want of Australians to value and respect our indigenous populations. In the worst forms of paternalism, those engaged in activist lawfare are using the same tactics they claimed were racist … The recent decision by Minister Plibersek on the should never have happened.”

Ms McDonald said the Coalition changes would not be in relation to a stand alone race definition but a definition of which groups had standing to speak to indigenous heritage in a local area, which is the source of not only the dispute over the Blayney gold mine but other projects as well.