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The Forum > Article Comments > Moving on from the age of confrontation > Comments

Moving on from the age of confrontation : Comments

By Everald Compton, published 5/3/2012

Mining at war in Australian society

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Here are some issues I have with the mining industry. What do we do when the best deposits are exhausted? Why don't we value add? Why do locals have to pay carbon tax on our coal and gas but not overseas buyers?

We blithely assume that when deposits are exhausted new ones will be found. Not necessarily; the new mines could be in Africa not here. Remember what happened to Nauru. Those people who now complain about fly in-fly out might be lucky to get menial jobs in the suburbs in future. Unlike Broken Hill all these towns can't get art galleries as the ore runs out. Let's see if that works for the Pilbara.

The new trend seems to be to send bauxite and iron ore to Asia and not smelt the metals here. Some of the energy for that will come from Australian steaming coal and coking coal. That way the company avoids carbon tax and the emissions don't count as a debit against Australia. However we'll have to buy back the steel and aluminium made from our resources but pay a lot more for it. At the same time world emissions increase but we've pledged to make them decrease.

The question of exchange rates and the two speed economy I'll leave for others. Even though mining pays the bills for now we have to realise that it can and perhaps will inevitably go bad.
Posted by Taswegian, Monday, 5 March 2012 12:59:37 PM
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My only reservation about this generally excellent article is the comment about defending to the death the right of landowners to control whether mining can occur on their land .

Many landowners hold only a Crown Lease which reserves to the Crown
[ State government ] the ownership of minerals in the land . In that case , the State has the legal right to grant mining rights . Even with some freehold titles, ownership of minerals may be reserved to the State government .

The principle that landowners , whether farmers or residential owners , should have the absolute right to grant , or refuse , permission to mine or do anything else on thier land has to be read subject to the public good .

Government has statutory power to resume , or compulsorily acquire ownership of , private land for public purposes , provided that , when doing so , the government must pay fair compensation to the land owner .

A similar position should apply when mining is to be carried out on farming , or other private , land . If the public interest demands that mining be done , the landowner should not be entitled simply to refuse . However , in that case , the landowner should be fairly compensated .
Posted by jaylex, Monday, 5 March 2012 3:47:10 PM
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