BHP president Australia Geraldine Slattery has called on the Federal Government to put the right policy settings in place to maintain the nation’s foothold in the global mining sector.
Offering a “blunt assessment” to attendees of the annual Melbourne Mining Club Luncheon yesterday, Slattery declared the industry’s skills and talent to be under threat, that Australian technology is trailing global competitors, and that we are not keeping pace as a competitive place to invest.
“We must be champions of more competitive settings,” she said. “We cannot change the rocks we have, but we can change the enablers and settings in their discovery, extraction and development.”
What does Slattery envision for a practical plan of attack?
“One – by building a workforce with the right skills,” she said. “Two – by embracing the technology and innovation that will shape the future.
“Three – by championing a policy of competitiveness.”
While Slattery praised the Federal Government’s investment of over half a billion dollars in Geoscience Australia to survey critical minerals as “timely” and “welcome”, she called on the Government to take the next step.
According to Slattery, this means streamlining permitting to make developing new projects easier.
“Time to market matters,” she said. “For Australia the principles should be clear: put in place a risk-based permitting system that ensures processing timelines are certain and outcomes are reliable.”
Slattery also said striking the right tax settings to allow prosperity in the sector and treading carefully with changes to labour laws are just as relevant to maintaining Australia’s global competitiveness.
“It remains our view that the industrial relations changes of the past two years will raise costs, reduce productivity and take us backwards in our ability to compete globally,” she said.
“We need to do more, move faster, and work harder.”
Subscribe to the Mining newsletter to get the latest news that matters to Australia’s premier industry.
