Australia’s stalled mining sector is poised for a fresh boost with last weekend’s election of a conservative government headed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott who championed a platform, which included scrapping a deeply unpopular mining tax.
As his Liberal-National Party coalition ends six years of Labor Party rule, Abbott, with backing from Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch, takes office as the country’s economy adjusts to the end of a mining investment boom, wracked by depressed government revenues and fast-growing unemployment.
His finance spokesman Andrew Robb, the potential trade minister, however, promised one of the world’s top mining country’s will benefit from the results. “As of today, the mining boom will be rebooted,” he told Australian reporters. “We will restore an appetite for investment,” Australia is one of the world’s primary sources for coal and iron ore.
Abbott’s government, though, will not enjoy a Senate majority, likely to be confronted by a mixed range of minor parties and independents until a new round of elections in Q3 2014. Regardless, according to political analysts, Abbott will need Senate approval to get rid of mining taxes.
