Miners to top ‘Rudd tax’ campaign in battle over multi-employer bargaining

Resources companies are preparing to exceed the $22m anti-mining tax campaign that led to Kevin Rudd’s demise if the government imposes taxes and multi-employer bargaining.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable says until the government ruled out new taxes, the mining sector will ‘push back hard’. Picture Gary Ramage

Resources companies are preparing to replicate and exceed the $22m anti-mining tax campaign that led to Kevin Rudd’s demise if the Albanese government imposes new taxes and multi-employer bargaining on miners.

The Minerals Council of Australia, NSW Minerals Council and Queensland Resources Council will on Thursday launch a pre-emptive strike ahead of the final parliamentary fortnight of the year and cabinet’s deliberations on a new gas and thermal coal tax.

The multimedia advertising campaign, which says “increased taxes won’t reduce energy prices”, follows revelations in The Australian last week that the ­government was considering a tax on gas and thermal coal to support energy consumers facing spiralling costs.

Mining companies and industry groups have recruited strategists to lay the ground for cam­paigns on several fronts amid concerns the government is planning to slug miners to raise revenue in next year’s budget.

Australian mining companies, which have registered record exports and revenue after benefiting from supply chain and energy disruptions during the pandemic and Ukraine war, have privately accused the Albanese government of misleading the sector and voters ahead of the election.

The mining sector is also worried about a tougher safeguard mechanism regime that would enforce “unachievable” emissions-reduction targets and changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that could apply stricter restrictions on project approvals.

Senior mining industry sources said they were “ready for a fight” on multiple issues, which they feared could “cripple” the nation’s biggest-earning and highest-paying sector.

Whitehaven Coal, the country’s largest coal producer and exporter, on Wednesday urged the federal government to rule-out a new tax on thermal coal.

The coalminer said “further taxing our coal exports won’t make electricity cheaper for Australian consumers”.

“It will just cost jobs and undermine our reputation as a reliable trading partner. The rising cost of living is something the government must address but a new tax will never be a cure for high domestic energy prices,” the company said.

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers say a new tax is not the government’s “preference” and have sought to reassure concerned trading partners, including Japan, that Australia will remain a reliable supplier of gas and coal.

MCA chief executive Tania Constable said until the government ruled out new taxes, the mining sector would “push back hard”.

‘Taxing exports of Australian coal will do nothing to address the domestic supply or price issues impacting Australians. More than 85 per cent of Australian coal is exported. Coal supplied to the domestic market is done so under long-term contracts at prices much lower than the current high international prices,” Ms Constable said.

She said a tax on mining would “exacerbate the cost of living crisis” and ensure job losses at a time “when families are doing it tough”.

NSW Minerals Council chief executive Stephen Galilee said “increased taxes won’t reduce energy prices” and the public interest is “best served when bad policy proposals receive an appropriate and direct response, and that is what we are doing”.

“More than 30,000 people work directly in mining in NSW and nearly 170,000 more people in NSW work in jobs supported by the sector. Given the potential impacts, we owe it to them to ensure the implications of bad policy proposals like this are clearly understood,” Mr Galilee said.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said new taxes on coal and gas producers would be a “disastrous move and lead to higher, not lower, power prices for consumers”.

The government also came under fire from Rio Tinto chief executive Kellie Parker on Wednesday after she joined Qantas and Woolworths in pushing back against multi-employer bargaining changes contained in the proposed IR legislation.

Ms Parker warned that the ­industrial relations bill would ­incentivise strikes, threaten job security, lead to less productivity and suppress long-term wages growth.