Article by Sarah Jane Tasker. Courtesy of the West Australian.
Anthony Albanese and his top team have “declared war” on the sector powering the economy and it’s a battle that could prove to be Labor’s undoing.
The Government is already ending the year on an absolute shocker with the complete farce over the concerning list of people released from immigration detention.
And now it has pushed ahead with controversial industrial relations laws and Tania Constable, the head of the Minerals Council of Australia, says the Government has started a “war” with the booming industry.
Someone might want to remind the Prime Minister and his minister who pushed through the changes, Tony Burke, what happened to Kevin Rudd when he took on the industry in 2010 with his plan for a new super profits mining tax.
The miners can’t stop the Bill now it has been rushed through.
But they can focus their attention on destabilising this Government. And the way Labor is tracking at the moment, it won’t take much.
In an all-out war the nuclear option the sector has is to try to kick out the Albanese Government.
One top mining CEO recently told me: “we’ll just wait for the Liberals to come in and unwind this Bill”.
With economic headwinds ahead and everyone focused on cost-of-living concerns, starting what will become a brutal fight with the key sector driving the economy is not smart politics.
Labor may have kept its union mates happy with these new rules but it will soon learn that support isn’t going to be enough to win the battle ahead.
