Lai See | Old school politician Macfarlane tells it like it is on carbon tax

Western politicians these days are masters of the 30-second sound bite, and spin prevails over substance. So it was refreshing to encounter an old school politician who tells it like it is in the form of Ian Macfarlane, Australia's minister for industry. He was speaking at the Asia Mining Club in Hong Kong yesterday where he was interviewed by Lai See.

Although the current coalition government is intent on repealing the carbon and resources taxes, we wondered if the genie hadn't been let out of the bottle and that for potential investors an element of uncertainty had been injected into the tax framework surrounding the mining sector. He began his answer by recalling a recent meeting with some business people who'd been discussing an investment case. It turned out the choices were between Australia and Kazakhstan. "Of course it was a no brainer," said one of the businessmen. "Kazakhstan won."

Macfarlane observed that it only takes a few years of bad government to destroy an investment reputation and conceded that Australia did have a sovereign risk issue. However he was at pains to assure potential investors that the government intended to change the investment environment for the mining sector.

In addition to tackling the carbon and resources taxes, the government had started to tackle red and green tape, which was slowing the granting of exploration and mining permits along with addressing inflexible working practices that were helping to drive up labour costs and reduce productivity. "The message we want to give to investors is that there is a very significant change going on in Australia. We are open for business," said Macfarlane. However as we all know talk is cheap and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.