CME welcomed the latest quarterly report from the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), which showed an improvement in mining project approval times.
“Industry acknowledges the efforts of DMP in reforming mining approvals and looks forward to seeing continued improvement into the future,” said CME Chief Executive Reg Howard-Smith.
“The resource sector’s prime concern is that Australia is becoming a less attractive place to develop projects and investment may be driven to other regions because of additional layers of taxation through the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and the Carbon Tax, coupled with rising costs for doing business, an inability to source skilled labour and a lengthy approval process,” he said.
“Reducing approval times assists with the positive positioning of the Western Australian resources sector in a global context.”
“The improvement in Western Australia’s time-frames, contrasts starkly with last week’s stalling of the Council of Australian Government’s ‘green tape’ reform agenda by the Federal Government.”
