BHP’s Grylls lies and threats enter Twilight Zone

Goodness me, can you say anything at all and get it reported? Via the ABC:

A senior BHP executive has warned that the Western Australian mining industry could face a similar decline to Australian car manufacturing if a new iron ore fee is introduced by the State Government.

As West Australians prepare for Saturday’s state election, major parties are grappling with policies to rein in a $4 billion budget deficit.

WA Nationals have championed an increased fee for the major iron ore miners BHP and Rio Tinto agreed to in the 1960s.

The head of BHP’s minerals division in Australia, Mike Henry, has drawn a comparison with Australia’s collapsed car manufacturing industry in voicing his opposition to the tax.

“We need to ensure that our industry remains competitive, [and is] able to compete with the Brazilians and others globally.

“That’s the surest way of ensuring that we continue to maintain investment and jobs.”

Community grants handed out by the mining giant could also be at risk if the fee increase to $5 per tonne was charged to the company, Mr Henry said.

“As much as it would hurt to do so, some of it would have to come from the funding that we’ve provided to communities currently, and that’s in the short term,” he said.

Over the past five years, BHP has spent $1.6 billion in the Pilbara towns of Newman and Port Hedland on community programs.

WA Nationals leader and Pilbara MP Brendon Grylls said the mining industry had been misleading the public in their campaign against the tax.

“The miners are yet to tell the truth in any of their TV advertising, they don’t tell the truth to any of the people of Western Australia,” he said.

“If BHP and Rio choose to never invest in Western Australia again, maybe jobs could be at risk. But I find that completely fanciful in an iron ore sector where, at the moment, the margin is $60 per tonne.

“The iron ore industry has doubled in volume, they have export records out of the Pilbara ports every month now.

Mr Henry should hang his head in shame. The car industry? Iron ore is making stunning super profits:

Unlike the car industry the capital is not mobile. What’s BHP going to do? Pick the Pilbara and take it to the Bahamas?

Plus Brazil is hiking royalties much more than Grylls is:

If both proposals go through then BHP competitiveness will improve.

Post-truth indeed.