General News
21 May, 2025
Long-term future of Mount Isa the focus of crisis talks
Bob and Robbie Katter, along with mayor Peta MacRae, met with industry leaders in Brisbane on Monday.
The three tiers of North West government have held crisis talks in Brisbane this week to develop a united strategy to tackle the looming economic emergency facing Mount Isa.
Robbie Katter said he hosted the face to face meeting with his father, Kennedy MP Bob Katter, Mount Isa mayor Peta MacRae, and multiple industry representatives to discuss a path forward for the mining city.
Mr Katter said Mount Isa faced economic threats on a range of fronts, from job losses following the end of underground mining, to the potential closure of the copper smelter and the stalled CopperString construction.
He said two decades of policy neglect had created a looming economic emergency in the North West.
“Mount Isa is facing some very serious consequences at the moment,” he said.
“There is an accumulation of 15 or 20 years of neglect around policy and infrastructure.”
As previously reported, Glencore is seeking a $2 billion dollar government rescue package to keep its Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville refinery operational for the next decade.
However, Cr MacRae said any rescue package needed to be wider in scope.
She said there was an urgent need to focus on addressing the policy settings that hampered economic growth across the entire region.
“Any rescue package for the smelter needs to include money to achieve some of the projects identified in the Future Ready Economy Roadmap,” she said.
“If we don’t diversify and transition our economy, then we will just be in the same position in a few years’ time.
“Glencore is not immune to the same operating conditions that are hurting other miners in our region, so we also need to look at what settings are making it unviable for everyone.”
Mr Katter said the meeting focused on policy settings that would build investor and business confidence across the resource supply chain.
The Traeger MP said economic confidence was essential to enable local families to plan their own futures.
“We don’t want to just save any particular mine or piece of infrastructure, we want to create an air of business confidence in the region,” he said.
“If a mine can be able to have confidence for the next decade, then it means that the workers and their families and local businesses can have confidence and can make decisions about their own futures.
“We aren’t just wanting to be saved from the immediate issues, we want to have the issues addressed with proper long-term policy.”
Cr MacRae said a number of options were discussed that could be presented to Premier David Crisafulli and the re-elected Albanese government.
“Proper reform is hard – it takes time, and time is something we just don’t have,” she told North West Weekly.
“We need to get the policy settings right because we already know there are businesses looking to invest in our region, but they are waiting for final investment decisions because it is so hard due to gas prices, rail costs, power costs. The policy settings the government has lumbered us with are not showing wealth in our area.”
Mr Katter said it was essential that all local elected representatives worked towards the same goals.
“All these matters require extreme urgency, and we not only have to save Mount Isa, but we also have to reform the policies that impact the city,” he said.
“It is paramount that all of the elected representatives are singing from the same hymn sheet.
“It was only last week the federal ministers were sworn in, and the state ministers are all settled in now, so this is the first opportunity we have had to get a clear run to plan any delegations and make other strategies.
“We have a good opportunity to stand together.”