Antinuclear

Australia half-hearted about removing corruption in oveseas mining operations

Tougher standards to fight corruption in the resources industry ABC News 26 May 13 By resources reporter Sue Lannin More of the world’s governments have signed up to measures designed to reduce corruption in the global resources industry.

Around 3.5 billion people live in poor countries that are rich in resources but they do not see the trillions of dollars that flow from their mineral and energy reserves.

Last week, the United Kingdom and France joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which requires countries to fully disclose taxes, royalties and other fees they receive from oil, gas and mining income.

About 40 countries have now implemented the voluntary scheme and about $US1 trillion in revenue has been disclosed.

Australia has launched a pilot EITI scheme but is not yet fully compliant.

Despite recent reforms in the US and the European Union, Australia does not require mining and energy companies to publicly reveal the taxes and royalties they pay to governments around the world for natural resources.

Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Gary Gray said in his written speech prepared for the EITI conference in Sydney last week that transparency for transparency’s sake was not necessarily the best policy.

“While I recognise the benefit for governments to better understand and negotiate market conditions, exposure of sensitive project, contract and other market information will distort market competitiveness,” he said in the speech.

But the senior policy manager for extractive industries at Oxfam America, Ian Gary, says investor pressure is mounting in Australia for more openness…..

NGO says EITI merely symbolic

However, NGOs would like to see the standards tightened further as some of the new rules merely “encourage” countries to increase disclosure.

Environmental NGO, Global Witness, has called EITI a “totemic reformers club”, saying corrupt countries such as Nigeria are members…….

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-26/concerns-over-mining-activities-in-developing-countries/4713328

May 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics international