Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick feels ‘no fear’ as mining lobby ramps up royalty campaign

Cameron Dick is expected to deliver a record surplus in Tuesday’s Queensland budget, fuelled by booming coal prices and the government’s controversial royalty scheme.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick speaks to the media during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick says he is unafraid of the mining lobby’s multimillion-dollar advertising campaign attacking the government’s tax hike on coal companies ahead of next year’s election.

Mr Dick is expected to deliver a record surplus in Tuesday’s budget, fuelled by booming coal prices and the government’s controversial royalty scheme.

The royalty regime, which includes the highest taxing rates in the world – with a top tier of 40 per cent for coal prices above $300 a tonne – has drawn criticism from the resource industry, which claims it is threatening future investment and jobs and may lead to the closure of mines.

The Queensland Resources Council launched a new advertising blitz on Monday that will run until the October 2024 election, criticising the scheme.

But Mr Dick said the campaign “fills me with no fear at all”.

“I believe that people of Queensland are on our side,” he told The Australian. “(They) understand that resource belongs to them and at a time of unprecedented price for coal, both metallurgical and thermal, they're entitled to a fair share of that.

“I don’t think Queenslanders want to hear complaints from the (QRC) about paying a little more tax when they are making record profits and their revenue is through the roof.”

Mr Dick increased coal mining royalties in last year’s budget following a decade-long freeze and after repeatedly promising no new or increased taxes during the 2020 state election campaign.

Queensland Resources Council chief Ian Macfarlane said people in regional Queensland were concerned about investment stalling.

“We’re not being asked to pay a little bit more tax, we’re being asked to pay almost three times what he projected in the budget,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“He should be, as the Treasurer, thinking about what’s going to happen in Queensland in five years’ time, in 10 years’ time, not how much money you can get out of the industry now.

“We’re putting at risk future investments and future jobs in a range of resources projects, including green energy and hydrogen.”

Shingo Yamagami, the former Japanese ambassador to Australia, had publicly criticised the Queensland government for its increase in coal royalties previously, saying it triggered a rethink about whether the state remained a “safe and predictable” investment destination.

Mining giant BHP has said it will not make any new investments in Queensland while the windfall royalty rates remain in place and in February confirmed plans to sell its Daunia and Blackwater mines.

Mr Dick rejected claims the royalty regime had affected jobs or investment, citing Resources Safety and Health data that shows the coalmining workforce increased from 37,970 employees in the June 2022 quarter to 40,778 in the December quarter.

“There’s been a lot of activity in the market to purchase those (BHP) mines, which they thought they would sell for $2bn, but some of the current market reports … demonstrate the price of those mines combined could be as high as $9bn.

“We are confident Queensland coal has a strong future.”

Huge coal windfalls have driven revenue gains up almost $50bn from what Mr Dick predicted in his first budget in late 2020.

LNP Treasury spokesman David Janetzki said despite “rivers of gold” the government was still failing to deliver key services, including health.

“If $50bn more than what the Treasurer expected in his first budget just three years ago isn’t enough for the Palaszczuk government to fix services – then no amount of money will ever be enough for them,” he said.

“They’ve sprayed billions around and it’s not possible to say that anything has improved on any measure.”