My point is, that it does not matter whether it is iron from WA, coal from NSW and Qld or technology from the ACT, they are Australian exports - if WA tried to divert its export to somewhere else, or NSW/Qld tried to export coal to somewhere else that the Feds dont like then the States are overruled - it might be dug up in a particular location, and that State might be able to glean royalities but ultimately the resource is controlled by the Feds not the States.
An example is the Chinese Belts and Roads initiative where capital was going to be imported to Victoria from China - the Victorian Government agreement was stopped dead in its tracks as not being in Australia's interests.
Irrespective of where they are sourced, all exports are Australian not individual State.
Also you gotta love Wikipedia where you got the 46% number from - was back in 2011 in the mining boom. Also it says:
This article has multiple issues.
This article
may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints.
(October 2016)
This article needs to be
updated.
The reason given is: Economy has changed a lot recently, especially extractive construction.
(March 2017)
So if you are going to quote stats - please provide up to date stats and the relevant caveats.
Yes the export of iron ore is important to our economy (why we are not value adding by at least doing the first stage of processing I am not sure) but in GDP terms it is not providing nearly as much as its export value - to quote from your 2011 Wiki article - WA only provides 14% of GDP so puts the exports into perspective.
However - this thread is not about the economy of WA but about Covid, one aspect being that at the moment WA is out of step with the rest of the country. To balance this are the other States on the right track in moving too quickly to 'live' with Covid. My simple view is that WA rules are too draconian and not sustainable in the longer term but likewise I do not see the need for the rush elsewhere to relax everything - certainly many things should have been relaxed but should have been done in a phased fashion, not all at once.
My point is, that it does not matter whether it is iron from WA, coal from NSW and Qld or technology from the ACT, they are Australian exports - if WA tried to divert its export to somewhere else, or NSW/Qld tried to export coal to somewhere else that the Feds dont like then the States are overruled - it might be dug up in a particular location, and that State might be able to glean royalities but ultimately the resource is controlled by the Feds not the States.