BHP will look to lobby the Queensland government on progressive coal royalties to attract more investment, as the mining giant defends its use of labour hire workers following union protests.
Company chair Ken MacKenzie and chief executive Mike Henry addressed stakeholders in Brisbane on Wednesday after climate and union protesters earlier descended on the annual general meeting to decry BHP’s use of labour hire and climate action credentials.
Two protesters managed to sneak in while questions were put to the full board.
While questions to the company heads mainly pertained to stakeholder benefits and emissions reductions targets, Mr Henry outlined the multinational’s stance on coal royalties in a press conference following the AGM.
“All BHP can do is outline our views and the impacts of the policies of the day,” he told reporters.
“The reality of the coal royalty scheme in Queensland right now is it does not make investments and growth here attractive for us relative to the options we have in Chile, elsewhere to some of the other states in Australia, Canada and so on.
“That whole vision is agnostic of government.
“I’m sure the governments over time will think about how they go attracting more investment in the state and country and you would expect policies to evolve to that.”
Queensland’s progressive coal royalty tiers were legislated by the former Labor government and have been committed to by the new Liberal National Party government over the four-year forward estimates.
BHP has five metallurgical coal mines in Queensland with royalties propping up state government coffers since being reintroduced in 2022.
Mr Henry also expressed concerns over ‘same job, same pay’ laws.
BHP’s opposition to the federal government’s laws prompted 500 mining and energy union protesters to demonstrate outside the AGM.
The company was at odds with the rest of corporate Australia, with major employers such as Qantas and Kmart agreeing to close the labour hire “loophole”, said Mining and Energy Union national secretary Grahame Kelly.
“They’e insisting on fighting ‘same job, same pay’ in the courts,” Mr Kelly told protesters.
“It can only be to extend the pain and suffering of those workers at OS (BHP subsidiary Operations Services).
“This is an outdated scam, BHP. It’s time to pay up.”
The mining giant’s CEO has a different opinion.
“We have a crazy situation here in the mining industry in Australia, where over the past 25 years, productivity has moved sideways as wages have doubled,” Mr Henry said.
“That is not a route to maintain the competitive industry, and this industry has to remain competitive globally.
“And the same job, same pay policies … we made it a point at the time, the mining industry was already paid well, very well, relative to all other industries, and so we didn’t see the same need for reforms to impact the mining industry – that’s not the way it played out.”
The meeting also attracted a small group of climate protesters, who chastised BHP for its continued use of coal while the company spruiked its green credentials.
Zaida Variava, spokesperson of anti-fossil fuel activists Lock the Gate Alliance, called BHP’s climate transition action plan a “comprehensive piece of greenwash”.
Mr MacKenzie refused to shoot down reports he was planning to retire from the board when he reached its informal nine-year term limit in 2025.
“I think I’ve had this question every AGM for the last three AGMs and I take it year by year,” he said.
“So we have annual elections at BHP. I’ve just been re-elected by my shareholders. This is something that we’ll talk about as a board in the new year.”
