Chamber of Minerals and Energy CEO Reg Howard-Smith said the Treasurer had sought to dismiss the fears of thousands of workers by trumpeting the progress of long term projects which have been in the construction phase for months and were developed before the spectre of this royalty increase.
“Thousands of men and women are genuinely concerned they will lose their jobs in the wake of the Government’s plan to increase the gold royalty rate,” he said.
“Each one of these workers deserves to be respected.
“They deserve to be treated with dignity, to have their fears acknowledged and their concerns heard by the State’s decision makers.
“They do not deserve to be mocked or to have theirs fears dismissed.”
Mr Howard-Smith said since the royalty announcement, the share prices of ASX-listed gold companies operating in WA have dropped by an average of more than 8 per cent.
“This decision is already hitting the industry hard. The Labor Government’s priority should be to keep its promise to put jobs first and stand up for Western Australian workers,” he said.
“For more than 100 years, the gold industry has played an important role in keeping Western Australia’s economy strong.
“The Labor government needs to build confidence that it will support mining, WA’s most important industry, rather than hurting it with opportunistic taxes.”
Mr Howard-Smith said the new gold projects highlighted by the Treasurer in a media statement today, were approved for development months ago.
“The question now for the Treasurer is will any new mines be developed under his tenure?
“Will any new gold mining jobs be created under his watch?
“Western Australian gold workers deserve to be respected for the role they play in keeping WA strong.”
