Like so many Australian firms these days, BHP is a whinging renter-seeker:
BHP chief executive Mike Henry says the mining group will “not be investing any further growth dollars in Queensland” after the state’s abrupt increase in coal royalties, suggesting the changes were unpredictable and unreasonable.
…“I think we owe it to our host state and to this audience to be honest – here in Queensland, the approach to raising coal royalties could not have been more different,” he said. “There was no engagement of industry … the near tripling of top-end royalties makes Queensland the highest taxing regime in the world.
The new measures were announced by surprise in the Budget of 2022 after a ten-year freeze in royalty changes. This gave BHP no chance to mount a public relations campaign in response.
At the time, the coking coal price was at astonishing prices entirely owing to the Ukraine War. BHP had no right to harvest such war profits:
They collected an extra $10bn for the public over the year.
Even so, BHP still printed money on outrageous 60% margins for its QLD coal mines:
Bravo Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who shrugged off the threats from BHP. “We have a lot more other investors in Queensland,” she said.
The surprise reform announcement at the eleventh hour is the best way for policymakers to defeat greedy corporations and get the public their fair share of the commodity endowment.
It is a great shame that Albo’s woke Canberra cowards did not learn this lesson when they wasted months consulting with the gas cartel only to be wholly reamed.
