QRC wants states that buckle under activist pressure penalised
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has called on the Australian government to penalise states that do not develop resources because of pressure from foreign-funded green activists.
Speaking at the Queensland Media Club, QRC CEO Ian Macfarlane noted that both Queensland and Western Australia were currently being disadvantaged by having resource royalties counted against the Grants Commission per capita distribution of the goods and services tax (GST).
“States that do the heavy lifting by supporting job creating resource projects and supplying the electricity market shouldn’t be worse off,” Macfarlane said.
“Politicians can’t keep ignoring the science and running away at the first sign of chanting and placard waving from green activists. If you want to fall to the ideology and expect other states to provide your energy needs, then the federal government should cut your GST distribution.”
Macfarlane noted that in resource-rich countries such as Canada, royalty income was discounted by 50% before it is added to the equalisation calculations.
“If such a system was adopted here, Queensland would gain about an extra A$100-million a year, which is money in the bank to pay for infrastructure and services to make our state an even better place to live.”
Data from the Minerals Council of Australia has previously shown that over the last 15 years, the total amount of yearly GST revenues collected by the federal government increased by 124% to A$59.7-billion. However, over that period, the amount of GST distributed to Western Australia has fallen from A$2.5-billion in 2001/2 to A$1.9-billion in 2016/17.
The federal government in April launched an inquiry into the impact of the horizontal fiscal equalisation, which underpins the distribution of GST revenues to the states and territories.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation