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Farmers fear their ability to do basic tasks like fencing or deep ripping will become tangled in costly red tape when important new legislation designed to protect WA’s Aboriginal cultural heritage takes effect next month. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 was passed through State Parliament in late December in the wake of Rio Tinto’s infamous blasting of Juukan Gorge more than two years earlier.

New Indigenous heritage laws set to come into force in Western Australia are “shambolic” and will hold up new mines and food production in the state, according to the explorers and farmers. But the government says it won’t reconsider or delay the proposal, which is due to take effect on July 1, legislated after the widely condemned destruction of the Juukan Gorge heritage site by Rio Tinto in 2020.

Rio Tinto has expanded its hunt for lithium, buying into one of the hottest exploration regions in Canada, as Gina Rinehart also stepped up in the race for lithium assets on Thursday. Rio this week agreed to buy into a suite of tenements in the James Bay region of Quebec ­controlled by Canadian-listed Midland Exploration, which already has deals with BHP and Rio elsewhere in the country for base metals tenements.

Coal is a four-letter word for Labor/Green governments in Australia where it can’t be used in polite company. Thank goodness it can still be exported and its royalties used to fill the Treasury coffers of our governments. Last year Mr Dick imposed a new coal royalty rate regime which is the highest in the world. Yes, it yielded a bumper return this year, but as surely as night follows day, it will deter new investment. As Mrs Gina Rinehart observed in The Speccie last month, despite very high commodity prices, the investment in mining is much less than in the last mining boom a decade ago. High royalties, high taxes, sovereign risk, and red and green tape as far as the eye can see explain why companies are far more hesitant to invest in Australia these days.

Mr Dutton, in his speech to the Committee for Economic Development Australia’s State of the Nation conference, said large companies with extensive capital were shifting focus from Australia despite its natural resources and advantages, and deciding to invest elsewhere. “CEOs are looking at Australia and seeing sovereign risk, particularly in the mining sector ,” he said. “Companies are looking at other markets . . . (and) billions of dollars in capital will go elsewhere. “We’ll see it over the next few years — projects will be mothballed until there’s a more stable regulatory environment.”

Australia’s most successful private company – which made the AFR Fast Global list with almost 18 per cent revenue growth over the past three years – has a pipeline of magnetite and other projects aimed at boosting the iron ore exports. Hancock executive director Tad Watroba says the world will need more iron ore than ever before to hit global targets in renewable energy, but government policies were a barrier to boosting production. “Iron ore is critical to the modern world, and by all assessments global demand for iron ore and steel is only going to increase in the coming decades,” he says.

Hancock Prospecting says it wants Rio Tinto to open new mines under a long-standing partnership as it moves to boost iron ore production, but warns the Albanese government’s policies are posing a threat to investment. The resources group, owned by billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart, said the government had put in place “necessary” barriers delaying the development of new projects under the Hope Downs partnership that so far involves the Hope 1, Hope 4 and Baby Hope mines in Western Australia.

Share paid by richest 1pc jumps to 18.3pc. The share of tax paid by Australia’s highest earners is at its highest level in at least a decade, with new data showing the top 1 per cent contributed nearly a fifth of personal income tax in 2020-21. Figures released by the Australian Taxation Office yesterday showed the average individual tax bill for the top 1 per cent of earners was $317,090 in the period, up by more than $47,000 from a year earlier, according to analysis by The Australian Financial Review.

You could be forgiven for not knowing anything about the new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act about to come into effect on July 1. It seems many didn’t. But before you dismiss it as something that doesn’t affect you, think again. It’s not just farmers, miners or industry groups affected by these changes. Many metropolitan landowners and hobby farmers will be liable under the same set of rules. It will be up to the landowner to find out if their land is a culturally significant site and apply for a permit. If they don’t, they could be subject to significant penalties.