TABJ - July 11 - Latest news announced during the weekend regarding Australia’s proposed carbon tax and its impact on the mining sector has dominated Monday’s headlines, including talk of more offshore developments, jobs that may be lost and regional economies rocked.

When the tax comes in during July 2012, it will apply from $23 per tonne and is set to greatly impact the nation’s biggest emission-producing business vehicles—both through their operations on ground and the new off-road diesel cost plans pur forward. Within the three years following, the tax will go up by 2.5 per cent per annum before settling on a given rate depending on the market at that time. Amongst the industries set to bear the greatest blow is coal mining—with a rumoured $18 billion further payment in store over the next nine years—and it has already been claimed that the $1.3 billion package aimed at assisting the industry to transition under the tax simply isn’t enough: less than 10 per cent of the cost it is set to incur.

Speaking at Perth’s Boao Forum, Australia’s richest woman and mining mogul Gina Rinehart talked about how the tax will push buyers towards less stable sources of raw materials.

“We have to earn our place in Australasia, we have to be cost competitive. Obviously, shoving in the carbon tax and the MRRT (minerals resource rent tax) doesn’t help our cost competitiveness; they hurt it,” she told press.

“If we don’t keep cost-competitive, they will go elsewhere, that’s the reality...They’re going to be looking at Mongolia and they’ll be looking at West Africa because they can’t keep supporting high prices."

Various bodies have also been quick to express concern, including the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), stating how it will affect Australia’s wider mining sector, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ), which has voiced fears about job losses.