State whips up new laws to stop snowballing rates blue between Shire of Mt Magnet and vanadium explorer

A legal dispute between a regional shire and a local vanadium play over rates charges has escalated to the point where the State Government has to draw up new laws to fix the mess, handing a victory to industry.

Fresh proposed tweaks to the Local Government Act that can be revealed today burst what was becoming a ballooning battle between the Shire of Mt Magnet and Atlantic Vanadium, who have been slugging it out since 2023 over whether the Shire could charge levies on six “miscellaneous” licences.

The dispute was seemingly done and dusted last month when WA Supreme Court Justice Marcus Solomon overruled a State Administrative Tribunal decision and found that the land was rateable.

That decision caused a ruckus among WA explorers and miners, with Association of Mining and Exploration Companies arguing such rate charges were “completely unjustified”, and could cost the sector $50 million a year.

The battle took yet another turn this week when Atlantic Vanadium decided it would take the Shire to the Court of Appeal and challenge the decision, a move believed to have had financial backing from fellow explorers.

Now the State Government has jumped to the mining sector’s rescue, revealing it will introduce new laws in Parliament to ensure miscellaneous licences — which usually covers land with roads and infrastructure used in mining — are exempt from local government rates.

The Local Government and Acting Mines Minister’s office said the land held under these licences had “long been understood not to be rateable under the Act”.

But the recent Supreme Court decision deeming the land to be rateable only a month ago had now paved the way for “millions of dollars in additional costs for mining and exploration companies throughout regional WA”.

“As a result, the State Government will move swiftly to amend the Act by clarifying that land held under these licences is exempt from local government rates,” a spokesperson said.

Minister Hannah Beazley said the amendments would uphold what had been the 1995 legislation’s “original intent”.

“While no local governments are currently collecting rates on land held under a miscellaneous licence, a recent Supreme Court ruling has called this understanding into question,” she said.

“We’ll continue to engage with the resources sector on how it contributes to local communities and work with local governments.”

AMEC chief executive Warren Pearce — who had previously accused local governments of treating the mining industry like “cash cows” —backed in the move as “sensible” and would be welcomed by industry.

“We pay rates on mining, exploration and prospecting licences, and in regional local government areas we overwhelmingly make the largest rates contribution,” he said.

Mr Pearce added that AMEC, and fellow mining lobby the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, were still in favour of an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Shire of Mt Magnet’s legal fight had received the backing of 13 other local governments.

This was evidence to chief executive officer Tralee Cable — a big driver of the rates effort — that the council was far from alone in its concerns.

Ms Cable told The West Australian on Friday she was “looking forward to the Supreme Court decision being upheld to support the effective distribution of the cost of administering local governance across Australia.”