Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) is revelling in the success of its anti-mining-tax campaign, after recent polling showed that support for the proposed iron-ore tax has dropped from nearly 50% to 34.8%.
The CME in November launched a campaign to stop the Western Australian Nationals from implementing its leader Brendon Grylls' proposed tax of A$5/t of iron-ore, targetting BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, to replace the current 25c/t payment.
CME CEO Reg Howard-Smith said on Tuesday that the sharp fall in support for the proposed tax was as a result of the community’s growing awareness that the proposal was bad for Western Australia.
“In September, when The West Australian’s poll showed almost 50% backing, Grylls lauded the result and said it reflected a strong sentiment in favour of his tax plan. Now, with the same poll showing such a sharp fall in support, it should logically send him a new message - it is time for the Western Australian Nationals to scrap the mining tax,” Howard-Smith said.
“As more people understand the fact Grylls’ mining tax will cost thousands of Western Australian jobs, make Western Australia an uncompetitive place to do business and further reduce Western Australia’s goods and services tax share, they are saying ‘no’ to the proposal.
“More people are also realising that Grylls’ scheme is more about him playing politics to try and win seats than what is in Western Australia’s best interests," he added.