“Emotive” rhetoric on reef threatens development
Port operators and miners have lashed the “uninformed rhetoric” around the development of coal and gas export infrastructure on the Great Barrier Reef, saying a regulatory crackdown on the iconic marine environment could damage the national economy, according to The Australian.
As some of Australia's wealthiest environmental philanthropists gear up to bankroll a campaign against coal and liquefied natural gas developments around the reef, the resources industry has warned a federal government-commissioned review against ‘populist or emotive’ reactions to pressure from special interest groups.
The Queensland Resources Council ¬¬¬– whose members include the nation's biggest coal producers, the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance and Rio Tinto Coal – has told the review that it strongly opposes changes to the conditions on existing projects or new policies that could apply retrospectively “as this creates enormous project risk and uncertainty”
Korean tensions to top China talks
Escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula are set to top the agenda when Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr hold talks with Chinese leaders next week, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Diplomatic sources said there was “no doubt” the situation would “be at the top of the talking points’’ during high-level meetings in China, which is North Korea’s only ally and regarded as the only country with any capacity to rein in the excesses of the Pyongyang regime.
The United States, which stepped up its response by deploying stealth fighter jets to South Korea at the weekend, is also keen for the Australian government to directly express concerns to the Chinese regime.
Gillard, accompanied by Senator Carr, Trade Minister Craig Emerson and Financial Services and Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten, leaves for China on Friday for a five-day visit focused on trade and economics.
Copper shipments uninterrupted by strike
Codelco, the world's No. 1 copper producer, is losing a substantial amount of output due to a two-day-old strike at its Radomiro Tomic open pit mine in northern Chile, the company said on Sunday, adding that orders were still going out to customers, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Miners downed tools on Saturday to demand that pit bosses they blame for the recent death of a miner be fired. By Sunday, the pit bosses had not been let go and negotiations with the striking workers had not begun.
The mine's general manager resigned, but will remain with Codelco, chief executive Thomas Keller told reporters.
