BHP BILLITON

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (14:51): My question is to the Premier. Has BHP raised concerns with the government regarding the Premier's climate change targets and, if so, will he be moving to withdraw the legislative changes?

Referring to such state legislation in the context of the federal government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers stated in a letter to the Prime Minister dated 1 September:

Intervening regulations, such as the MRET, not only creates unnecessary complexity; more importantly, it creates a distortion of the market that will prevent adoption of the most economically efficient solutions to reduce carbon emissions.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:52): The Deputy Premier has recently had a 1½ hour meeting with Marius Kloppers and, certainly in that meeting, no such concerns were raised. I have the most vivid recollection of my meeting with Marius Kloppers last year in Melbourne, and again at Canberra airport in more recent times, and he certainly did not raise those issues with me, and neither has the head of the Olympic Dam expansion project for BHP Billiton, Graham Hunt.