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Fraser Institute survey delivers a message to the NSW Government: lift your game
The Fraser Institute Survey of mining companies is a well respected international survey of mining and exploration company managers that has been conducted annually since 1997.
This year’s survey represents the views of 690 companies over 112 jurisdictions and contains some mixed results for NSW.
The good news is that overall NSW remains reasonably steady in a global context for mining companies which are continuing to invest in NSW, ranking 39th out of 112 international jurisdictions up from 44th out of 95 jurisdictions in 2012. This was in large part due to our ‘best practice mineral potential’.
The bad news is that in 2011 we rated much higher at 20th out of 79 jurisdictions, so overall our investment attractiveness has significantly slipped under the current NSW Government.
The even worse news is the survey has confirmed that NSW is now the lowest ranked Australian state on the Policy Perception Index which is seen as a “report card to governments”. Western Australia is the highest ranking Australian state at 6th in the world and South Australia and the Northern Territory are next at 11th and 13th respectively.
The Index indicates that NSW is performing poorly in terms of:
- Uncertainty concerning the administration, interpretation, and enforcement of existing regulations
- Uncertainty concerning environmental regulations
- Regulatory duplication and inconsistencies (State/Federal/Local and inter-departmental)
One producer company in NSW was quoted in the report explaining the NSW regulatory environment: ‘Delays in approval processes, changes to regulation with poor transitional arrangements. Uncertainty in the outcomes of the planning process and government not willing to take hard decisions.’
The full report is available on the
.