A call by influential economist Professor Ross Garnaut to introduce a Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) would undermine Australia’s economic engine room at a time of great global uncertainty.
Professor Garnaut has identified an MRRT as an economic reform the returned Albanese Government should consider.
The MRRT was abolished in 2014 after just two years and would apply an additional tax to iron ore and coal production.
CCIWA Chief Economist, Aaron Morey, said the government should not compromise the resources sector in a bid to boost the federal budget.
“Some outside Australia’s industrial states appear to need a sense check on how fundamental the resources sector is to the national economy,” he said.
The global contest for capital is heating up, not cooling off. We need to be ahead of the pack, not implementing tax and regulatory changes that would see capital flow elsewhere.
“The sovereign risk that changing the goal posts mid-game pose to Australia’s attractiveness as an investment destination, should not be underestimated.”
Mr Morey said any decision that undermined Western Australia’s resources sector would be to the detriment of the entire economy.
WA’s world-leading resources sector is critical to sustaining and raising the living standards of all Australians,” he said.
“It provides tens of thousands of jobs, critical business investment and leads the nation’s innovation efforts through its adoption of technology, including decarbonisation.
“Our nation had this discussion 15 years ago and very clearly sided against changing the goal posts mid-game for the resources sector.
“It is critical that debates about the MRRT and other regulatory costs for the minerals and resources sector are now settled.”
