Mining Tax petition

http://act.ly/45o


The miners have gotten away with it for too long. They shall no longer set their own tax rate, by astroturfing and threatening the government of the day. The miners will cough up a fair amount of tax, greater than what is currently proposed by the Prime Minister. It is not the miner’s minerals to exploit, it is ours, the Australian people’s and we demand to have a fair price paid for our non-renewable resources. Come on Prime Minister give the people of this country their entitled earning and spoils from the mining boom, not just the greedy miners.

For more: http://on.fb.me/ipVbk8

SMH Article:
BHP profit sparks call to toughen mining tax

BILLITON has underlined the boom in mining, nearly doubling profits for the second year running to post an Australian earnings record of $US23.6 billion ($22.48 billion).

The bumper result comes as a new analysis suggests Labor’s watered-down tax on mining profits may raise little net revenue and could struggle to pay for the policies it was designed to fund.

The world’s biggest mining company yesterday beat market expectations by about $1 billion when it unveiled an 86 per cent jump in 2011 profits, driven by hefty increases in the prices of resources sold to China.

The result, which followed a 116 per cent increase last year, was seized on by the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, as proof of the need for the tax on mining profits.

“Results like this expose the huge economic risk posed by Tony Abbott, who thinks the mining sector pays too much tax but other struggling sectors should pay higher company tax,’’ Mr Swan said.

A $22 million mining industry advertising campaign scuttled the original resource super profits tax and helped bring down the former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Analysis prepared for the Greens suggests Julia Gillard’s version, to be put to Parliament later in the year, will raise between $80 billion and $100 billion less than the original – a much bigger real hit to revenue than Treasury estimates suggested.

The national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Paul Howes, said BHP’s monster profit bolstered the case that the miners should be doing a lot more to help the local manufacturing industry.

The Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown, said the limited revenue from the new mining tax was ‘’a perverse outcome at a time when the mining industry is already putting huge strain on the rest of the economy’’ and the government should revive the original tax and provide company tax cuts only for small businesses.

But the Coalition opposed both the original and revamped tax. A spokesman for the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, said last night the record profit from BHP was not an excuse to raise tax.

‘’This tax is against the national interest and should be scrapped,’’ the spokesman said.

Treasury forecast the original resource super profits tax – designed to fund company tax cuts and investment allowances to industries such as manufacturing – would have raised $99 billion over its first 10 years.

It estimated that Julia Gillard’s revised minerals resource rent tax would raise $38.5 billion.

But the estimated volume and value of the mineral exports being taxed jumped between the two calculations, and Treasury has refused to say by how much.

The analysis by a Greens adviser, Naomi Edwards, uses Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences forecasts to estimate the revenue from each tax on a ’’like’’ basis.

She concludes that if Mr Rudd’s original tax was calculated using the increased estimates of the value of mining exports, it would have raised $140 billion, not $99 billion.

Alternatively, if Ms Gillard’s tax was calculated using the earlier, lower, assumptions about the value of exports, it would raise only $18.1 billion – not the $38.5 billion forecast by Treasury.

The government cut back the spending measures to be funded from the new tax after the deal between Ms Gillard and the three big miners BHP, Rio and Xstrata, including reducing the proposed 2 per cent cut in the company tax to just 1 per cent.

But according to Ms Edwards, the 1 per cent cut to the company tax rate could cost $18 billion and therefore require all of the revenue from the new mining tax should Treasury’s original assumptions about the value of mineral exports prove to be true.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/bhp-profit-sparks-call-to-toughen-mining-tax-20110824-1jadw.html

 

Hi Auspol

Dude i'm all for mining companies paying their dues to the people who's land they exploit and make billions.

Anyone who says different has rocks in their head.

Ofcourse the people of the land should share in this wealth and not just mining companies.

If they dont like it they can get the hell out of here and the government can take over.

Australia the land of milk and honey, yeah right for all those that rape her wealth but not for the average Australian.

I hope the governments all around the world just bring it on, that way where ever these mining moguels go the tax will still have to be paid.

 

I am amazed at people who argue against the mining tax.

Chinese companies would be lining up to get a hold of Australian mining leases if certain multibillion dollar corporations don't like being taxed.

We should get our fair share from the resources of this country.

We need to have something to invest in the future for when this place is turned into a dust bowl.

‘’This tax is against the national interest and should be scrapped,’’ is about the most moronic thing I have ever heard. It is against the national interest not to have it. Abbott wants to give the country away to billionaires and leave us with nothing. As*hole.

 

Hear, Hear