It was a historic Queensland Government budget with a record surplus of more than $12 billion delivered last month, but the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) says there needs to be a balance or the state will lose out in the long run.
It says that imposing the world’s highest coal royalty tax will have long-term consequences of lost jobs and lost investments, especially in regional communities.
“There has to be a balance between what the Queensland Government takes from the resources sector and what it leaves to encourage companies to continue to invest the capital required to get large-scale, multi-decade projects off the ground,” QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane said.
“The reason Queenslanders are benefiting today from the resources sector is because of investment decisions made years, if not decades, ago by resources companies which saw Queensland as a safe and secure place in which to invest,” he said.
“That long-held perception of Queensland has now changed, for the worse.”
Mr Macfarlane said that a $2 billion investment in Central Queensland that would have created more than 2000 jobs has been cancelled, and a number of companies have indicated they are reconsidering their investment plans.
"A pipeline of more than $100 billion in a range of projects, including the minerals needed for lower emissions energy and technologies, could also be at risk because of the uncertainty that now exists for companies weighing up whether to invest in Queensland,” he added.
“Over $18 billion in royalty taxes paid by the Queensland resources sector has enabled the State Government to deliver a budget that provides cost-of-living relief to Queenslanders.
“But if the Government wants the resources sector to be able continue to provide that support into the future, it needs policies that encourage investment to maintain a stable pipeline of projects in the years and decades to come."
The QRC is also calling on the State Government to provide full details on its funding commitments to regional Queensland communities that are the backbone of our resources sector.
“Such a big economic impact on resources companies will have consequences and they’ll be hardest felt in regional communities that rely on the jobs and local spending that the sector provides,” Mr Macfarlane said.
“Many regional resources towns that help generate the billions of dollars of extra revenue now pouring into Government coffers are still waiting to see exactly how that money will benefit their regions,” Mr Macfarlane said.
QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane
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