BHP Billiton’s annoucement of the biggest profit in Australian corporate history demonstrates the urgent need for a resource rent tax, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said today. The world's largest miner produced a net profit of $22.5 billion for the 12 months to June 30.

“BHP’s profit is up a whopping 86%, largely off the back of record prices for Australian resources,” said CFMEU National President Tony Maher.

“There are healthy profits – and then there are super profits.

“We urgently need a resource rent tax that ensures all Australians benefit from this mining boom, not just the shareholders of mining companies.”

Mining companies profiting from Australian resources must also maximise the flow on benefits of the resource boom by giving Australian businesses the right to tender for construction contracts, said Mr Maher.

“Mining companies making super profits here are designing their huge construction projects to favour foreign suppliers over local content.

“BHP shouldn’t wait for the government to insist on local content requirements, they should introduce their own local content policy. If BHP had a local content policy in place, Bluescope wouldn’t have been cutting jobs this week.

“It’s time for the super profitable mining giants to accept that the people of Australia deserve a fairer go from the windfall benefits of our resources boom.”