The latest Federal Budget is an opportunity for the Government to show restraint in its spending and help to create jobs and infrastructure in regional Queensland, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said.
“Relatively modest and well-targeted investments in key areas such as industry infrastructure, R&D and carbon capture and storage projects would create jobs and support the sector’s export potential, especially as India and China’s economies are defying the world trend and still growing,” he said.
According to Roche, the current financial climate has provided an opportunity for the Federal Government to take steps that will place the country in a better position for the future.
“Australia should be using the global economic downturn as an opportunity to move ahead of the game through the focused delivery of infrastructure and a more aggressive minerals exploration agenda, driven by a flow through shares scheme,” he said.
Roche points to the Goonyella-Abbott Point Expansion project and energy and transport upgrades for north and North West Queensland as examples of valuable long-term investments.
“This is also the right time to encourage the discovery of our next generation of mines and oil and gas fields,” he said.
“Exploration is instantly labour intensive and in the medium-term, essential for Queensland’s economic outlook as known resource deposits head towards the end of their economic lives.”
Roche wants the State to be well placed for the next upswing in the market.
“The last thing we want to be doing is playing another round of catch-up as the world rebounds from what is essentially a loss of confidence in developed world financial systems, not developing world aspirations,” he said.