From Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh via the AFR:
“I don’t know what Andrew was thinking,” Mr Walsh said to a packed mining industry lunch on Thursday.
“I think the comments are absolute nonsense, I’m not sure if Andrew actually sought legal comment before.”
“It is essential that we foster Australian industry…that is internationally competitive, and is not being propped up by tariffs or artificial means. That is not a way to run this great country. We have the wherewithal to be competitive with our mining, and to try to artificially prop it up with some harebrained scheme, that is just physically not going to do it.”