IF you want consistency in government policy, do not look to the resources sector. There you will find a strange contradiction, one that no one in Labor really wants to talk about. On one hand, a federal government used class rhetoric to push for a super-profits tax on mining and then partnered with the Greens to create an impost on coal-based industry through the carbon tax. On the other hand, state Labor governments assisted a stampede of coal and coal-seam gas exploration in rich farming land and settled areas of NSW and Queensland in a land grab that exposes the harsh reality that there are losers as well as winners in the mining boom.
In NSW, the former Labor government handed out so many exploration licences that they now cover almost half the state, including prime farm land in the Hunter Valley and the Liverpool Plains. Read More
The Australian
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