EDITORIAL: Strike at crucial export hub a sign of trouble

The nation’s economic warning sirens are in full cry.

Deloitte Access Economics sounded the first blast on Tuesday.

Deloitte warned Australia was expected to suffer from the weakest economic growth since the 1991 recession as unemployment soared to COVID-era levels during an unresolved global oil crisis that is tipped to spark another interest rate rise next month — and possibly another beyond that.

It is forecasting gross domestic product will expand by less than 2 per cent for the next two years, marking the longest stretch of poor economic performance in more than three decades.

This would include economic growth of 1.3 per cent in 2026-27 and 1.9 per cent in 2027-28.

The jobless level was predicted to climb from 4.4 per cent now to 5 per cent in 2027-28, reaching levels last seen in late 2021 when Sydney and Melbourne were in COVID-19 lockdown.

“Inflation may stay even higher for longer, prompting more than just one additional interest rate hike,” it said.

Two more rate hikes would take the Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate to an 18-year high of 4.85 per cent.

On Wednesday, RBA chief economist Sarah Hunter all but confirmed another rate rise was on the cards.

And Dr Hunter argued taming inflation would mean higher unemployment.

We are facing what is becoming an economic emergency.

And yet on Wednesday what did we get?

Unions pulled the trigger on worker strikes to choke BHP’s sole WA iron ore port after pay talks hit a stalemate.

Strikes at BHP’s Port Hedland operations are shaping up to be the most severe industrial action taken in WA’s mining industry in a generation.

An eight-hour stoppage covering hundreds of BHP employees is expected next Thursday.

Port Hedland is one of the largest iron ore loading ports in the world and the largest in Australia. It is used by BHP, Fortescue, Mineral Resources and Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill.

The region is the nation’s economic engine. The resources sector is a vital source of government revenue through royalties and taxes which go towards funding the services we all rely on.

In 2023–24 alone, the minerals sector paid $59.4 billion in tax and royalty payments to Federal, State and territory governments.

If the sector does well we all benefit.

Governments can play their part by streamlining regulation and ensuring workplace laws support enterprise and innovation and boost productivity.

Yet the sector seems to be heading towards the bad old days of industrial relations in the 1970s and 1980s, when union militancy smashed productivity and our reputation as a stable and reliable trading partner.

Unions have been emboldened by the Albanese Government’s changes to industrial relations laws. The outcome of that is now clear and the implications for the future are alarming.

WA Premier Roger Cook and Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King need to put aside union allegiances, help broker a solution to the looming strike threat and advocate more effectively for the crucial sector for the betterment of the country.