THE federal government did not cave in to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in ruling out a parliamentary inquiry on iron ore, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says.
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Fortescue Metals founder Andrew Forrest called for the parliamentary inquiry, accusing the bigger miners of flooding the iron ore market to push out smaller rivals.
But Treasurer Joe Hockey issued a statement late on Thursday saying the inquiry would not go ahead ‘‘after discussing the issue with regulatory bodies and stakeholders across the resources sector’’.
Mr Forrest shot back, saying it appeared the decision came after ‘‘intense lobbying’’ by the multinationals.
Asked if the government had caved in to them, Mr Cormann said: ‘‘Not at all.’’
After independent senator Nick Xenophon called for the inquiry a few weeks ago, it had become a Labor-dominated push, which the government did not support, he said.
‘‘We explored as to whether there was an opportunity to run a more sensible inquiry,’’ Mr Cormann told reporters in Perth on Friday.
‘‘What is happening in the iron ore market is pretty basic free market economics. That’s the way any commodity market operates.’’
He said Mr Forrest was ‘‘big and ugly enough to deal with whatever issues he needs to deal with’’.
‘‘He’s a senior businessman running a very big company here in Western Australia. He’s been very successful over the years - I’m sure he knows exactly what he’s doing.’’