The leaked letter from Glencore to Malcolm Turnbull and Annastacia Palaszczuk threatening to close down their North Queensland copper operations due to power, transport and other costs is hopefully just bluster by a multi-national company putting the heavy on governments to get preferential treatment.
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Copper prices are on the increase and Glencore are still making money out of Mount Isa Mines so there is no need for anyone to press the panic button just yet.
In their response to the North West Star confirming the letter was genuine, Glencore acknowledged that the Queensland government has made a significant effort to engage with them.
It should also be noted that the state government has already committed half the $30m money to rebrick the Mount Isa smelter, though Glencore itself has yet to fully commit to doing it.
This is not to say that Glencore’s issues aren’t real.
Power costs especially are rising rapidly, as any residential consumer would painfully know, and responsibility for this lies fairly and squarely at the feet of Malcolm Turnbull’s federal government.
After the news broke on Tuesday, I sent the following questions to Mr Turnbull’s office.
“What is the federal government doing to address this issue of power prices escalating to the point it is putting companies out of business? Or is it prepared to sit on its hands and allow the "catastrophic failure of national policy making" (per Four Corners "Power Failure" report May 8) destroy the livelihood of thousands of people in an already economically depressed part of the country?”
Needless to say this do-nothing prime minister has not responded, so it seems the federal LNP government has no problem with destroying the local economy, especially seeing as it is not defending a seat in North West Queensland.
But our local federal member stands culpable too. Where is Bob Katter on this issue? Quiet as a mouse and preferring to mouth off about inconsequential issues such as Billy Slater’s absence from the State of Origin team. Mr Katter, if you are not prepared to address the issues that matter, stand aside and let someone else do it.
Derek Barry
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
