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WA’s peak resources body has warned Labor’s latest round of industrial relations reforms would put jobs at risk and increase the union power on worksites. In a submission to a Senate probe into the Closing Loopholes Bill, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) argued the reforms would put an end to the resource sector’s use of service contracting and damage existing supply chain frameworks. Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable fronted the inquiry on Tuesday, when she argued the viability of WA’s resource sector would be damaged due to the impact it would have in attracting overseas investment.

Stronger than expected iron ore prices have helped lift the forecast for Australia’s resources and energy exports by $10 billion this financial year, despite a deteriorating global steel demand outlook. Commodity export earnings are tipped to fall from last year’s record $467b to $400b in 2023-24 and $352b by 2024-25, according to the latest Federal Government data released late on Monday. Minister for Resources Madeleine King said the lower earnings reflected a return to more normal prices after supply was constrained by the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, flooding in Australia and Indonesia and COVID-related workforce problems.

The Federal Government’s planned industrial relations changes are a “disastrous rewriting” of labour laws that will trigger the collapse of small businesses, the peak mining body is warning. The Minerals Council is urging the Government to dump the “fundamentally flawed” legislation which it claims will harm the economy — in particular the mining sector — and add to costof-living pressures on families. The lobby group’s boss, Tania Constable, will issue the warning when the Federal parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s “closing loopholes” legislation holds its first public hearing on Tuesday, in Sydney.

The proposed shake-up to Australia’s workplace laws is “fundamentally flawed” and risks roping in “millions of Australian workers”, the mining lobby has claimed. Ahead of Senate hearings into the government’s second tranche of industrial relations changes, the peak resources sector body, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), condemned the reforms, arguing they would inflict “immense harm” on the Australian economy. “At a time when Australia could be at forefront of delivering a low emission future the government is proposing to introduce a massive impediment and roadblock on the opportunity,” she will say. “Rather than building a new innovative society for the future, Australian businesses will be spending their days studying law books and appearing in court trying to work out whether we can even start.”

Businesses will likely scrap bonuses, share-based compensation and other incentives in a bid to simplify pay structures and avoid costly legal battles over what counts as ‘‘same pay’’ under the Albanese government’s complex labour hire laws, miners have warned. The Minerals Council of Australia will tell a Senate inquiry into the government’s Closing Loopholes Bill today that requirements for labour hire workers to get paid at least the same as directly engaged employees are so complex they will force business into lengthy litigation of more than a year and make such outsourcing ‘‘entirely impractical’’. The lobby group will deliver its hardline opposition to the laws on the first day of Senate hearings into the 284-page bill, which also includes rights for regular casuals to convert to permanent, minimum pay for gig workers, and jail for deliberate underpayments.

Battery-powered mine trucks would haul less ore and spend less time on the road than diesel-fuelled alternatives, delivering a productivity hit of between 19 per cent and 33 per cent to Australia’s biggest export industry. A study of the most viable truck decarbonisation options found miners producing bulk commodities such as coal or iron ore would need to spend more money deploying a higher number of trucks plus recharging infrastructure if they wanted to maintain output volumes when switching to a zero emissions fleet. Mining technology consultancy Idoba said the switch to electric mining trucks was unlikely to be seamless and the next generation of mines could be designed differently to better suit the charging needs of electric trucks. Mr Rodgers said the productivity hit from electric trucks would not necessarily mean lower export volumes of Australian commodities.

The Federal Government’s planned industrial relations changes are a “disastrous rewriting” of labour laws that will trigger the collapse of small businesses, the peak mining body is warning. The Minerals Council is urging the Government to dump the “fundamentally flawed” legislation which it claims will harm the economy — in particular the mining sector — and add to cost-of-living pressures on families. “Small local businesses will be competing on wages and entitlements with some of the biggest companies in the world, rendering many unviable,” Ms Constable will tell the committee, according to a draft of her opening address supplied to The West Australian. “The only road out of this nightmare scenario will be litigation through the Fair Work Commission, at the company’s own expense and time. “Each company will need to satisfy the commission that they shouldn’t have been captured.”

Stronger than expected iron ore prices have helped lift the forecast for Australia’s resources and energy exports by $10 billion this financial year, despite a deteriorating global steel demand outlook.“Despite the worsening outlook for global steel demand, iron ore prices strengthened again in September. The resilience in prices appears to reflect improved market sentiment due to the potential for new government measures to support China’s economy.”

30 September 2023.

Australia must become more competitive or miss the next mining boom, with the Minerals Council of Australia warning current policy settings on taxation, project approvals and industrial relations are holding it back. The MCA has alerted the ­Albanese government that it risks squandering a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to capitalise on surging demand for the critical minerals needed to help the world meet its net-zero targets.

The Albanese Government risks undermining its new employment aspirations by pursuing disruptive and destructive industrial relations changes that will only imperil employment and enterprise. While the stated goals and objectives defined in the government’s Employment White Paper are valuable and represent a positive step forward, they sit at complete odds with the ramifications of its so-called Closing the Loopholes bill. For employment, it is one step forward, and two steps back.

“The effect of this proposal is that it will make Australia — and in our case, the resources sector — less competitive and more costly, and this comes at a time when global competition for investment in mining and minerals is dramatically increasing,” she said. “What that means is that a worker with decades of experience will, by law, have to be paid the same as a labour hire worker who’s brand new to the business. “For shareholders, this is something that you should be very concerned about, because where does this additional cost come from? It comes from dividends and it comes from a superannuation investment.”