New mining tax, new Labor farce

The Gillard Labor-Green-Independent government has massively overreached with its new mining tax.Labor will be everywhere today boasting about its new slug on miners, talking up the funds that will flow to the Commonwealth, after buying off the Greens and the Independents to get the main mining tax Bill through the Lower House early this morning.But thinking Australians should take the time to consider the implications of the legislation before applauding the government.

The mining tax is another piece of Gillard/Rudd Labor sleight-of-hand, not unlike the noxious carbon dioxide tax that Gillard lied about so blatantly before the last election. She also lied about the mining tax at the same time. Having deposed her predecessor Kevin Rudd over his failure to quell the miners’ uprising that greeted the announcement of the mining tax in the Henry taxation review, she promised to settle the issue. She went into talks with the Big Three international miners operating in Australia, BHP, Xstrata and Rio Tinto, and announced that details of her talks would be revealed after the election. She has not released a single detail more than a year since that election. The Big Three did Gillard like a dinner, according to the gossips, who say the final document was even written in BHP’s offices. Gillard and her hopeless Treasurer Wayne Swan are going to provoke a rerun of the miners’ revolt that ended Rudd’s prime ministership. The Big Three may sit it out but the smaller miners will be chipping into a fighting fund and they will be joined by the three premiers of the resource-rich states of Western Australia, Queensland and NSW. Gillard’s tax relies on the deal she cut with NSW Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott to punish states which increase their mining royalties. The turncoats, Windsor and Oakeshott, are dead men walking in their electorates. A side deal was done with Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie, and another with the Greens Adam Bandt, to get the Bill through the Lower House. Australians are waking up to the Greens economy-wrecking strategy. Swan has written a threatening letter to the states warning them that they will be punished if they interfere with the Commonwealth plans to slug miners. The miners already pay company tax and royalties. The Australian economy has survived the global downturn largely because of the contribution made by the miners to employment and revenues. Gillard wants to squeeze them more and, ineptly. Money raised will go to paying off the interest on the massive debt Labor has incurred since coming to office four years ago. It will not be going into a Future Fund or a sovereign fund to safeguard against further fiscal calamities. The mining tax 265 pages of legislation, 600 pages of explanatory notes. The measure was meant to be part of the Henry process to simplify the Tax Act. Who’s kidding who? The Greens, who claim to stand for transparency in government, will not disclose details of their deal with the government. WA Liberal Premier Colin Barnett says the Prime Minister is “threatening the very fabric of co-operation in our federation”. Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis warned yesterday the legislation - coupled with Labor's carbon tax - risked wrecking Australia's reputation as a stable investment opportunity for multinational companies. This tax is nothing to boast about.