Tony Maher: "I think we’ve got the balance right in terms of the carbon price and the associated policy there because there was a lot of industry assistance to our manufacturing, our resource, energy intensive industries, and we put jobs centre stage. So we had the carbon price, we had our cake and ate it too. We had jobs with a carbon price. But in terms of the development process with mineral resources, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement. Firstly, there’s the complication of state and federal regulations, secondly there’s the lack of transparency in some jurisdictions about the development process, and, you know, in New South Wales there’s famously a corruption enquiry into some of those development approvals.  So I think we can do a lot better. I don’t know that the answers advocated by environment groups, governments or industry have got the right formula yet."

Categories: Australia Energy Issues, Coal in Australia, Government, Resources & Economy
Author: Tony Maher