Foreign Direct Investments in Australian Mining and the Failure to Protect Sensitive Environmental Resources

Abstract

This paper deals with foreign direct investments (FDI) in Australian mining. These investments do invariably impact on sensitive environmental resources that warrant preservation. Inadequate legal safeguards for preserving such resources stem from the lack of recognition offered to the scientific realities of the natural environment. As a result, the long run implications for welfare losses are significant. Two Australian case studies are considered. The first concerns the extraction of mineral deposits that are embedded in a near pristine groundwater resource system. The damages inflicted on the groundwater resource system can lead to hydrologic changes resulting in water scarcity. The second concerns mining operations that have implications for ground and oceanic water resource systems. In both cases, one observes inadequate of binding laws alongside improper economic analyses that have neglected the recognition of basic scientific realities. The improper economic analyses include the over-statement of the benefits of mining.