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04 June 2010

The AWU has savaged Xstrata's decision to suspend the expansion of its Queensland Ernest Henry Mine.

Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Paul Howes yesterday accused Xstrata of lying about the reasons it has suspended the underground expansion.

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Ugly political game - shifting blame

"Xstrata is trying to use the mining community of Cloncurry as a hostage in a rather ugly political game. They are trying to shift the blame for company problems onto the Federal Government and the resource rent tax," Paul Howes said.

"They are using the Ernest Henry Mine expansion as a pawn in a political power play over the tax while not actually impacting its operating plans concerning copper in any material way."

Xstrata has significant debts worldwide due to Global Financial Crisis

Mr Howes said Xstrata had significant debts worldwide because of the Global Financial Crisis, which would have been part of the decision.

"By mothballing Ernest Henry, which has contributed less to the global company, under the cover of the Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT), they can find significant savings for their corporate head office to rebuild their balance sheets," he said.

Ernest Henry mine would actually win out of the RSPT

"The reality is though that if Ernest Henry has become a more marginal operation the RSPT is less likely to apply to this operation. Its actual valuation should improve, not fall. It might be that Xstrata corporate head office is eager to 'kill off' the RSPT before the idea is adopted in other parts of the world, the 19 countries where they operate."

The union movement will  remain committed to the RSPT Paul Howes said.

On Wednesday  the AWU leader debated Queensland businessman Clive Palmer at the National Press Club in Canberra arguing the case for a fair share of Australian  resources.

Download, print and pass around our new leaflet explaining the resource rent tax

The Australian Workers’ Union has begun  distributing a new leaflet explaining the resource tax to its membership  and mining communities in regional Australia.

Today  Paul Howes told the ABC AM program he was very angry about the way mining companies are willing to play with the lives of their members, simply on the basis that they don't want to pay more tax for their personal profits of the big mining magnates.

The RSPT package will be good for the resource sector - and will help us to re-build mining communities

"The RSPT package will be good for the resource sector, will bolster more marginal mines rather than threaten them," Mr Howes said.

"The union has campaigned for this type of fair sharing of profits for all Australians for over 30 years.

“ We want a significant part of this fair sharing ploughed back into our mining communities to build up the local infrastructure - roads, rail, ports, affordable housing, schools, hospitals, etc, so as to improve the long term futures of our communities and to make them more attractive investment opportunities."