Mining Billionaire Warns Capital Gains Tax Reforms Will Hurt Australians’ Ability To Create Wealth On Land They Never Owned

A Perth-based mining billionaire’s warning that the Treasurer’s capital gains tax reforms will damage “the ability of Australians to create wealth” has reportedly prompted urgent clarification from First Nations advocates, several of whom were not aware they had been included in the demographic.

The mining identity, chairman of multiple ASX-listed exploration companies operating on Tjiwarl, Whadjuk and Mirarr Country, has publicly declared the Albanese government has “lost it” following the 12 May budget announcement of a 30 per cent minimum tax on capital gains and the wind-back of negative gearing.

“We are still trying to understand which Australians have been creating wealth on our Country” a senior land council representative said. “It does not appear to have been us.”

The billionaire’s holdings (valued in the billions) include lithium operations on Tjiwarl land where the Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation has signed a Native Title Agreement granting Traditional Owners contracts for cultural heritage protocols, earthworks and ore-loading services.

Officials confirmed the Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation, on whose Country the Kathleen Valley lithium operation sits, currently provides ore feed management from the run-of-mine pad to the primary crusher. Shareholder dividends, however, flow several thousand kilometres south to Perth.

A senior mining sector spokesperson stressed the reforms would “stifle aspiration and undermine the wealth-creating engine of the Australian economy” without specifying which Australians had been driving the engine and which Australians had been laid across the tracks.

The Coalition of Peaks confirmed it remains committed in principle to the concept of Australian wealth creation, but is yet to receive its first capital gain.