Press release – 10 January, 2018January 11, 2018: Calls by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) to hobble workers’ rights and strip environmental protections are a reminder of why the lobby group is being abandoned by their own members.The MCA have today made a pre-budget submission to Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, calling for environmental approval laws to be weakened and for changes to the Fair Work Act.
“Only a day after falsely claiming royalties are taxes rather than the cost of the raw material, the peak mining industry group are making outrageous demands to dismantle Australia’s national environmental law,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Jonathan Moylan said.
“The environmental laws in this country are already too weak and are failing national treasures like the Great Barrier Reef while allowing the Queensland Government to bulldoze an oval’s worth of bushland every three minutes.
“These laws need to be urgently strengthened, not weakened.”
The MCA’s submission comes a day after calling for wide-ranging tax cuts for large mining companies and confirmation of their plans for an advertising blitz in favour of coal-fired power.
Last year one of the MCA’s largest members, BHP, issued a public statement criticising the group’s continued support of new coal-fired power stations and warned they were considering revoking their membership.
“The MCA have shown they are out of touch not just with the Australian public but even with their own mining giant members. This latest attempt to roll back environmental and workers’ protections is a final gasp for relevance from a crippled vested interest lobby group,” Moylan said.
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Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Media Campaigner
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