QRC chief executive officer Michael Roche said although “populist tax grabs” regarding foreign investment and exploration were attractive to a budget in deficit, Swan should not hamper continued investment in wealth-creating resources industries.

“The whole Queensland resources sector is concerned about rumoured changes to the deductibility of exploration expenses,” Roche said.

He noted that the R&D departments of mining and resources would spur the next generation of wealth-producing operations.

“In 2007, federal Labor publicly committed to encouraging exploration with tax treatments similar to those attracting tens of millions of dollars into Canada’s exploration industry,” he said.

“Now we’re staring down the barrel at a complete reversal – disincentives to undertake what are high-risk but essential investments in the national interest.

“I travel Queensland a lot and despite what some of the sector’s more extreme critics say, I struggle to find opponents in country towns and regional cities to the delivery of new investment and new jobs.’

Roche said the resources sector invested a record $A36 billion in Queensland last financial year through wages, goods and services and community development programs.

“As reward for this effort, the state government increased coal royalties and now the federal government is threatening to tighten the screws some more, adding to the four new taxes introduced since 2007,” he said.

‘The bottom line is that every step Australia takes towards making itself uglier as an investment destination, the easier it is for our competitors to look attractive.”