Union head thought mine plan was a sham, ICAC told

A corruption inquiry has heard the president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union was concerned a coal venture promoted by the union’s former national secretary, John Maitland, was improper and would end in scandal, according to the Australian Financial Review.

CFMEU national president Tony Maher told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday: “If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it’s corruption”

Maher said Maitland had asked him in 2007 to sign a pro forma letter on behalf of the CFMEU supporting his plan for an underground training mine in NSW’s Hunter Valley.

“I refused to sign it,” he said. “I thought it would all end up here [at the ICAC].”

Prospector’s case prompts change to law

Wealthy Perth prospector Mark Creasy has triggered a change to the mining laws after he was found to be exploiting mineral tenements in Western Australia’s Great Southern region, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Creasy, who spends more on exploration than any other private prospector and denies any wrongdoing, was found to be lodging and withdrawing successive exploration applications over the same tenements via different holding companies.

By keeping the applications in a state of flux – or pending – Creasy allegedly held on to key tenements for long periods while delaying the expenditure required by a “granted” application.

Carbon tax repeal unlikely before late 2014

The Coalition has a range of options to repeal the carbon tax but will struggle to stop the scheme operating before the second half of 2014, according to the AFR.

In advice released to clients today, Norton Rose partner Elisa De Wit said if it won the election the only way the Coalition could stop the carbon price scheme from operating would be to have parliament pass amending legislation.

Options to alter or amend the carbon tax include increasing the threshold for liable entities to an arbitrarily high number so that no companies would be obliged to pay it; changing the cost of fixed price units to $0; and cutting funding to the Clean Energy Regulator so it is unable to enforce the clean energy legislation.