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Australia’s largest company, BHP, will close a training facility in North Queensland over the ongoing spat with the Crisafulli government as the miner ramps up its campaign to force the state to overhaul its coal royalties regime.
The world’s biggest miner described the tax scheme, introduced by the former Labor government in 2022 and continued by the current LNP administration, as an “extreme royalty setting” that has crippled the bottom line of operations in Queensland.
BHP revealed on Wednesday morning it would begin closing the FutureFit Academy in Mackay, which has trained nearly 600 graduates since opening in 2020. In a pointed message to Queensland, the company would consolidate training resources at its facility in WA.
“We have told our current Queensland-based students they will absolutely be able to finish what they started at FutureFit, and that their pathways into permanent roles at BHP operations are not impacted when they successfully complete their training,” a spokesman said.
“This is a difficult but necessary decision in the face of the low returns in Queensland, a function of the extreme royalty settings introduced in 2022.”
The salvo came after chair Ross McEwan said on Tuesday the company would continue to boycott investments in Queensland.
The former NAB chief executive said the tax stood out in stark contrast to the eagerness of policy settings and business appetite in interstate and international markets, including South Australia, WA, Argentina, Japan, Canada and the US.
“When you’re making no money with an operation in an area like Queensland because the royalties just spoiled your business, you don’t invest,” McEwan told a business summit hosted by The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.
“So, our process right now is zero investment into Queensland.”
Queensland Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dale Last contested the claim, noting the state scored higher on average than most of the international markets referenced by McEwan on an investment attractiveness index published last month.
“The mining industry is backing our plan that’s restoring investor certainty and sending a clear message that Queensland is open for business,” Last said in a statement to this masthead.
“The results of our reforms are clear, with the Fraser Institute’s latest Annual Survey of Mining Companies now giving Queensland a higher investment attractiveness score than the United States, Canada and Argentina on average.”
On this index, Queensland’s investment attractiveness was given a score of 79.8, nearly 10 points below SA and WA, which scored 89.2 and 87, respectively.
This came after BHP blamed the state’s tax policy for the company’s decision to slash 750 jobs in Queensland as it mothballed the open-pit Saraji South coal mine in the Bowen Basin in September.
It then revealed last month it was paying more taxes in Queensland than it was collecting in profits, when chief financial officer Vandita Pant described “acute” challenges in operations due to the royalties regime and the cyclical downturn in coal prices.
Treasurer David Janetzki has repeatedly stood by the government’s decision not to change the royalties regime, which was an LNP election guarantee at the 2024 poll.
“The Crisafulli government is providing certainty for the coal industry in Queensland with faster decisions, streamlined approvals and a stable royalty regime,” the treasurer said on Tuesday in response to questions from this masthead.
“There will be no changes to Queensland’s royalty regime.”
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