Following a brief introduction and welcome from Bruce Gregory,  Director and General Manager of AMC Consultants' office in Perth, Colin Barnett made a very interesting presentation for 30 minutes. His main theme was: “don’t underestimate the power and influence of state governments in the Australian mining industry”. He shared numerous interesting anecdotes about his time as Premier of WA, especially in relation to the phenomenal growth of the Iron Ore industry around 2010 to 2012 when Chinese demand grew dramatically. At the same time the demand for LNG was significantly increasing resulting in large projects in WA.

Two key points were:

- The Chinese government is much more interested in negotiating with and trusting government officials than dealing with private enterprise representatives. Colin visited China many times and also hosted numerous Chinese government delegations during the mining investment boom period. This very much helped facilitate the growth in trade.

- Mineral resources are owned by the State and the State Government has the ultimate power to determine if and how resources will be utilised and by whom. Colin’s point here was that many mining industry executives don’t seem to realise the power that can be exercised by the State Government, until this power is exercised. For example the proposed merger of BHP Billiton with Rio Tinto was looking like a real possibility until the State Government decided it wasn’t in the best interests of the State. Additionally, the Mineral Resources Rent Tax was eventually repealed (in 2014) when it was found that the key State Governments did not support it.