Undermining Our Prosperity

Although the lucky country was built 'riding on the sheep's back', in more recent times it's been propped up by the mining industry.

Without our mining entrepreneurs and their extraction of raw materials, Australia would be broke. Iron ore, coal and gas have been propping up the economy for decades while battling political and societal headwinds.

The blowhards who fight tooth and nail against mining projects or our use of the bounties of the earth are destroying the country.

They are the reason we can't use coal for cheap and reliable electricity. They are the reason we pay more for gas than the countries we export to. They are the reason that we rarely value add to our raw commodities and are being reduced to a global quarry.

The opposition is ideological.

Some claim to loathe mining on environmental grounds while others pretend to be saving the planet. There are yet other groups using black mythology to stop development.

The government has just used that final excuse to shut down a gold mining project that has previously had State and Federal government approval.

The Minister responsible, Tanya Plibersek - a hard left operative, used 'cultural heritage' as an excuse to make the new $1 billion project unviable.

McPhillamys Gold Project CEO Jim Beyer said:

“this decision does impact a critical area of the Project development site and means the Project is not viable.”

It's estimated that over 500 new, full-time jobs and approximately $200 million in royalty revenue will now be lost.

For her part, Plibersek claims the mine can go ahead, just not where it was previously approved. This is a result of contested Indigenous heritage claims.

The key word here is contested because the Minister chose to ignore the views of the recognised local Aboriginal corporation who are recognised as the traditional owners. They did not object to the project.

The Liberal Party spokesman Jonno Duniam said:

“After ticking every environmental approval box possible and with mines already taking up to sixteen years to get approved, the decision is further proof that the Labor Government will go to any length to stop developments, all in the name of harvesting Greens votes in inner-city electorates.” 

And that neatly sums up what Australia has now been reduced to.

Businesses can invest millions of dollars and many years of time to get projects shovel ready only for them to be shut down at the stroke of a pen by some desperate politician.

Little wonder many deem doing business in this country is now too hard.

I know private enterprises who have said there's no more intended business investment for them in Australia. They are investing their capital where it is more welcome - that includes nations where governments have previously deemed erratic.

Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing that special about Australia.

We have natural resources but so do plenty of other places. It's just in the past we've had a welcoming environment in which to do business.

That's no longer the case and when the mining investment dries up, so too will one of the final pillars propping up our economy.

"The wealth of the country, its capital, its credit, must be saved from the predatory poor as well as the predatory rich, but above all from the predatory politician."
James J. Hill