Not sure it is a disincentive to not support industries where a lot of people are employed, I think it has a lot more to do with how much influence the industry has.
As for that article, it claims 258,000 people employed in mining in 2018. No idea where they get that from, still, Dept of Industry so I suppose they are blowing their own horn.
But, if jobs are an issue why do they keep screwing education, far more jobs in education as shown by the figures on employment by industry on the parliament website:
The Arts, even after the COVID impact which was particularly bad for the arts, employs more people.
Mining employs about 1.5% of the workforce so not huge.
I know there is also employment to support mining, but the same can be said for other industries. With FIFO being a fair part of the mining workforce they also don't contribute as much to wherever they are located. Plus, they leave a mess behind.
Mining is a highly automated business these days and we all know how Qatar makes multiple times out royalties from exported gas even though they export a similar amount.
So, I am not convinced of the supposed huge contribution to Australia that mining apparently makes.
In any case, mining things like coal and gas is not a great long term prospect, fact is the world is moving away from fossil fuels. Time to invest in the future not the past.
DS