That's what I was thinking as well. If Australia doesn't have proper taxation of "insanely profitable" mining companies (paraphrasing), worrying about unions se

That's what I was thinking as well. If Australia doesn't have proper taxation of "insanely profitable" mining companies (paraphrasing), worrying about unions seems like misdirected effort. Norway has a 78% tax on profits from the petroleum industry, and the oil companies are thriving quite well. You can't exactly outsource the mining industry. In fact, extremely heavy taxation will help with the "problem" of unions because with heavy taxation, the mining companies wouldn't have an incentive to penny-pinch on salaries. And with higher salaries, a greater amount of the mining wealth would be evenly distributed and enter the economy where a larger number of people can spend it. This is what happens in the North Sea. As a bonus, the unions will to a greater degree spend their efforts of safety measures instead of a game of tug-rope when it comes to salaries. The Norwegian model works. Of course, you can't just tack on a 70+% tax regimen in retrospect without confiscating enormous shareholder value. So I think Australia is more or less screwed on this front. The best you could do would be to progressively tax new minesites. But of course this screws up the incentives unless it was done from the start.