Prof Sinclair Davidson: "The Fraser Institute which is a Canadian think tank puts out a report every single year having a look at business confidence around the world and specifically looking at the mining industry.  And they actually rank different countries according to how well they're doing and according to how mining executives believe those economies are doing.  If you have a look at Australia, from the 1990s we scored very highly in terms of this particular ranking.  We've actually fallen down the rankings over time and if you have a look at why international mining companies are more wary of Australia they point to things such as environmental regulation, they point to things such as regime and certainty around business regulation.   They point to things about taxation, they are worried about Australia. Now, our government likes to talk about the massive levels of investment which has occurred in the mining industry and it has been quite massive, but of course it could be so much bigger.  So what we are doing is resting on our laurels.  If we have a look at how well our coal industry has done over the last 10 years it's actually going backwards in a global perspective.  So it looks all hunky dory from an Australian perspective but if you have a look at how well the Australian coal mining industry's competitors are doing overseas they are doing much, much better than we are.  And we really can't afford to allow an industry such as the coal industry to basically be strangled through our own complacency."

Categories: Coal in Australia, Global Markets, Government, Industry
Author: Prof. Sinclair Davidson