There is a danger of not only bashing the mining industry, but in treating new minerals as the “next big thing”, while overlooking legacy conventional mining.
Mining has made all Australians prosperous, not just miners. Real wages have been considerably higher during the past 20 years than if there had been no resources export bonanza or mining investment boom.
Each surge of national income from mining booms has underpinned our housing and super wealth, and kept Australians near the top of global rankings of GDP per head, behind mostly rich European tax havens and Middle East oil sheikhdoms.
Mining booms have delivered the federal government one company profit tax windfall after another, totalling $365 billion over the last decade, with their impact magnified because budget forecasters usually underestimate future iron ore prices.
For the rest of this editorial: https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/stop-taking-our-mining-good-fortune-for-granted-20240910-p5k9e1