PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The resources sector has welcomed commitments by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to remove regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to business investment, with the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) saying it could unlock up to A$170-billion of potential resource investment across Australia.

Morrison on Monday told the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that there was a clear need to improve approval timeframes and reduce regulatory costs.

Morrison has tasked Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Ben Morton, to work with the Treasurer and other Ministries to tackle the full suite of barriers to investment in key industries and activities.

“This will be a renewed focus on regulatory reform, but from a different angle. Rather than setting targets for departments or government agencies, we’ll be asking the wider question from the perspective of a business looking, say, to open a mine, commercialise a new biomedical innovation, or even start a home-based, family business.

“By focusing on regulation from the viewpoint of business, we will identify the regulations and bureaucratic processes that impose the largest costs on key sectors of the economy and the biggest hurdles to letting those investments flow,” Morrison said.

MCA CEO Tania Constable noted that competitive taxation and efficient regulation were essential to Australia’s minerals producers competing in international markets. 

“In particular, Australia needs a competitive tax system for businesses to invest in major projects – generating jobs growth across our economy. This can be done by making tax regimes internationally competitive, including on investment.  

“Australia’s mining industry also is committed to an approvals system that works for the environment, investment and jobs, particularly in regional communities. Complex and duplicative assessment and approvals have generated unnecessary delays, adding years to projects getting off the ground,” Constable said.

Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) CEO Paul Everingham said given the mining sector was Western Australia’s third-biggest revenue stream, accounting for 23% of state revenue in 2019/20, it made sense to cut excessive and outdated regulation that was hampering major projects from getting off the ground.

“The only way to create more jobs is to increase the levels of investment in our economy, but when there are significant and excessive roadblocks in the way, in the form of taxes and regulations, companies will simply do business elsewhere and that costs the Western Australian economy significantly,” he said.

“By pledging to work with the resources sector by removing obstacles to business investment, the government is facilitating the flow of billions of dollars in royalties into the economy, and eventually back into the community to build vital public infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.

“In fact, a survey conducted by CME this year which sampled just 41 of our member operations in Western Australian revealed a staggering A$14.8-billion was given to the state and federal government in 2017/18, out of a total A$57.7-billion in direct economic contribution made by the sector.”