The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) last week revealed that Australian miners spent about A$34.7-billion on community infrastructure, indigenous contractors, local suppliers and other community activities during 2011/12.

The survey, the first of its kind, was conducted with the help of 25 Australian mining companies, explorers and resource contractors, and the MCA said that the study underscored why the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) was unnecessary and should be repealed.

MCA CEO Mitch Hooke said last week that mining companies’ community engagement was several times larger than the projected returns from the MRRT. It also exceeded the industry’s 2011/12 company tax and royalty payments, which Deloitte Access Economics has estimated at A$21-billion.

“The scale of the industry’s community contribution demonstrates that the best way of maximising a social return from Australia’s resource endowment is to ensure the mining sector remains globally competitive and continues to expand,” Hooke said.

He noted that a third layer of taxation on the minerals sector in the form of the MRRT took Australia in the opposite direction, undermining the country’s competitiveness and acting as a disincentive to investing in Australian coal and iron-ore projects.

“The size of the community contribution also conclusively demolishes the suggestion that prior to the introduction of the MRRT, Australians were not getting a ‘fair share’ of the mining boom.

“The industry’s tax and royalty payments coupled with the community spend show that mining will continue to make a very large social and economic contribution after the MRRT is abolished,” Hooke said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has moved to abolish the MRRT, introducing draft legislation to repeal the tax, levied on 30% of the ‘super profits’ from the mining of iron-ore and coal in Australia. Abbott is hoping to accomplish this by July 1, 2014.

Hooke pointed out that this was the first time a total industry figure had been compiled, adding that the total national figure would be higher when the contribution from all mining and mining-related companies was considered.