Victory for miners as Western Australian legislators block plan to increase royalties
Sydney — Legislators in an Australian state on Tuesday blocked a proposal to raise hundreds of million of dollars in additional taxes on gold mining after the industry warned the step would spark job losses. The Labor government in the state of Western Australia wanted to lift royalty rates on gold sales to 3.75% from 2.5% to raise nearly A$392m ($305m) over four years and help repair a budget weighed down by a record deficit. But the bill was effectively killed after Liberal Party members of parliament voted to block the measure in the state’s upper house. "The notion that this increase would not have a negative impact on the sector was nonsense," said Ian Kemish, a spokesman for Newcrest Mining, which employs 1,550 workers at its Telfer mine in the state. Miners in the world’s second-biggest gold mining nation pumped money into large advertising campaigns against the plan, similar to strategies used against past mining taxes. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy released analysis la...
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