WA’s place at the bottom of the Commonwealth Bank’s State of the States report* for a second quarter in a row again highlights the risk to WA’s economic recovery posed by the WA Nationals’ iron ore tax.
Chamber of Minerals and Energy Chief Executive, Reg Howard Smith, said that while there are encouraging signs for WA’s economy, these could too easily be undone by the jobs and investment destroying policy agenda being pushed by Brendon Grylls.
“While the CommSec report highlights WA has fallen to the bottom of the State of the States ladder and stayed there, it also shows there are some positives flowing through the mining sector that are helping the State,” Mr Howard-Smith said.
“This backs up the view outlined in the State Government’s Midyear financial review in December that iron ore and the resource sector would be doing the heavy lifting to get WA’s budget and economy back in shape.
“This investment and activity is, however, placed in jeopardy by the Brendon Grylls’ mining tax that will kill off 3,400 WA jobs, harm investment into the state, make the State’s GST share even worse and make us uncompetitive on the world stage.
“The Commsec State of the States is yet another report that highlights the fact that the WA Nationals’ new mining tax is something that WA just cannot risk.
“WA is still adjusting to the end of the mining construction boom and our miners and the thousands of contractors they support and people they directly employ can ill-afford the affects a tax which adds an extra $3billion a year in the cost of doing business will have.
“We need to keep the iron ore sector strong so that the State can reap the benefits in a sustainable way. For example, between 2004/05 and 2014/15, WA’s iron ore sector contributed more than $27 billion in royalties to the WA Budget. This is the same amount spent by the State Government on police over the same period and more than double the amount spent by the state on roads over that time.
“WA’s resources sector will play a significant role in leading WA back to prosperity. However, the sector needs stability, certainty and leadership, not the crushing new taxes and attacks on state agreements being promised by the WA Nationals.
“The WA Nationals should do the right thing by the State and scrap its anti-WA mining tax.”
* Commonwealth Bank January 2017 State of the States Report
