QRC says Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk won’t meet with coal mine companies

The Queensland Resources Council claims Annastacia Palaszczuk is refusing to meet with it and may be influencing her ministers to do the same, even after cashing in $15.3bn of coal royalties.

The peak body representing Queensland’s major mining companies claims the premier is refusing to meet with it and may be influencing her ministers to do the same.

Queensland Resources Council (QRC) Ian Macfarlane made the allegations just days away from stepping down as chief executive, as the association prepares to name who will next front its push to convince the state government to reconsider its coal royalties hike.

“We can’t even get the premier to go (to) a coal mine … there’s an open standing invitation,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“Peter Beattie didn’t need an invitation, he just went and David Crisafulli.

“ (Annastacia Palaszczuk) should just say, ‘This is the biggest economic driver in Queensland, I should be supporting it.”

Mr Macfarlane said Ms Palaszczuk boycotted the QRC’s luncheon and may have told her ministers and backbenchers to also not attend.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane will step down from the position at the end of 2023. Picture: Heidi Petith

The QRC is now installing new billboards along the Bruce Highway as part of its ongoing campaign against a royalties rate it maintains is encouraging mining companies to invest in anywhere but Queensland.

Mr Macfarlane said the treasury had already been on track to receive almost $10bn in royalties from the resources sector over the 2022-2023 financial year before the state government upped the rates to be more than “five times” that of NSW.

He asked what the treasury was doing with its actual receipt of more than $15.3bn in royalties from coal as “they’re certainly not giving it back to Mackay”.

He added the state government received more than $18.1bn in royalties from the resources sector in total over the past financial year, a 1400 per cent increase on the $1.2bn the treasury forecast just a couple of years ago.

The QRC’s newly released study – which assesses both the direct and flow-on effects from the mining and energy sector – states resources contributed $18.4bn to the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region over 2022-23, propping up 90 per cent of Mackay’s GRP, followed by 83 per cent for the Whitsundays and 44 per cent for Isaac.

In contrast, Mackay Regional Council’s figures show the resources sector’s GRP contribution was about 57 per cent based on 2022 data.

Treasure Cameron Dick says the state government’s royalty tiers will not ruin Queensland’s coal industry while Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has reportedly refused to meet the peak body representing Queensland coal miners. Picture: David Clark

Mr Macfarlane said the QRC’s study further revealed the sector now directly employed more people across the Greater Whitsundays than in Brisbane, and after accounting for indirect jobs, it supports almost eight in 10 jobs across the three local government areas.

“This demonstrates how important the industry is to the region’s economy, and likewise how important the (Greater Whitsundays) is to Queensland,” he said, adding the sector had kept Queensland afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic when tourism plummeted.

Mr Macfarlane said it was now a “fact” some coal mining companies were paying more in royalties than they were making in profits and so the industry was at risk of having no cushioning when the next slump “inevitably” came.

This publication contacted the premier’s office for comment but did not receive a response.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said earlier this year that its new royalty tiers would not diminish the coal industry’s bright future, and would instead by invested in hospitals, roads and other infrastructure.

Originally published as QRC says Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk won’t meet with coal mine companies