BHP chair Ross McEwan says Australia should be more like Canada and fires back at climate change critics

BHP chair Ross McEwan used the mining giant’s annual general meeting to ratchet up warnings that Australia has a major productivity problem.

The former NAB chief executive also shot back at critics who have chastised BHP for not doing enough to cut its emissions.

BHP’s leadership have for years warned that Australia policy settings put it at severe risk of losing out on investment to other countries.

Mr McEwan on Thursday sounded the alarm again and pointed to Canada, where the Big Australian is building a massive potash project, as a sterling example of a country improving its attractiveness for investors.

“It (Canada) has recently announced a Productivity Mega Deduction, which allows businesses to immediately deduct the full cost of eligible capital investments,” he said.

“For mining, Canada also makes mine development costs fully deductible in the year they are incurred. That matters. It lowers the tax burden on new investment. It improves returns.

“And it gives companies greater confidence to commit capital.”

Mr McEwan said that in turn would create “jobs, incomes, and taxes” for the nation and was a “practical example” of government policy being used to “encourage productivity and attract investment”.

“We’ve seen similar examples in other countries where we are investing. Like Argentina and Chile,” he said.

“Australia should pay close attention to that.”

The BHP chair also took aim at the company’s climate change critics in his AGM address.

BHP in May was accused by the ABC’s Four Corners program of reining in its plans to cut emissions, particularly at its diesel-intensive Pilbara iron ore mines.

“We have been taking practical action (on climate change) for years,” Mr McEwan said on Thursday.

“We are cutting greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations, using more renewable power, and backing developing technologies that can lower emissions from mining.

“Working with industry partners and equipment producers, we are trialling two 220-tonne class battery electric haul trucks in the Pilbara, with our trial of battery-electric locomotives set to expand in the coming months.”

Mr McEwan said BHP, the world’s biggest miner, had a long-standing operational decarbonisation target in place for 2030 and it was still on track to meet it “without putting BHP’s competitiveness at risk”.

He again urged policymakers to do more, by doing less.

“Government has a critical role to play. The wrong policy settings carry real risk: too prescriptive, too rigid, or backing one form of abatement when another may prove better tomorrow,” he said.

“Let’s avoid tinkering with policy settings that are actually working.The world wants lower emissions. So do we.”