all the more reason why we should have mining tax.

I would prefer australia to take a greater involvement in the design, construction and operation of th mines, and to develop downstream processing, then simply grab the cash.

I had lunch the other day with a guy from my old field - business Intrlligence. He was bemoaning the lack of market opportunities. H was forever chasing the banks and finance institutions in Sydney.

I suggested that he visit the mining operations and work on things like cost analysis and profitability, maintenance Analytics etc.

He recoiled in horror. Visit th mines? Those men in hard hats and overalls? No latte meetings? No 5 star bars and hotels? So he went back to bottom feeding in a very crowded marketplace.....

The money is there. It isn't magically going to waddle from Port Hedland to Manly and climb into wallets. It needs some help....

I agree with a mining tax being used as a sovereign wealth or infrastructure fund, but I don't agree with it in its current form, which is to fund welfare payments (bribes) in order to try and buy votes in the rust-belt states of SE Australia (where all the potential Labor supporters are).

i thought the mining tax will fund the 1% decrease in small business tax rate?

No problem here with any of it heading my way - but it doesn't "buy my vote".

no you won't. I love that pic.

i just heard on the radio the govt will be depositing something in our bank accounts next year?

Awwwwww - so sweet.....

I think that idea has been canned

labor could not pass the reduction for non-small companies because liberals don't want the mining tax in the first place and the greens hate the big corporates. only the small businesses will benefit with the lower rate and tax-loss carrybacks up to $1m.

Wont go to the mountain??? it is incredibly difficult to get jobs in mining. Have never seen much of a campaign here in Victoria looking for workers. If the miners ran a campaign looking to train workers and send them to the mines from Victoria they would be swamped.

They certainly would. One thing the mining companies don't want to do is train people they just want to poach staff from their competitors with ever increasing wages.

Between 1985 and 1995 I worked around the Australian mines and mineral processing operations (and across Asia in the same areas). I was very lucky, I worked for a highly specialist company that gave me easy access to the sites.

Three things stuck out then.

Firstly it was a small(ish) community. If people didn't know you, they knew your boss, or the plant manager, or someone on the crew. it was an insiders world.

Secondly a lot of people arrived full of enthusiasm, and left just as quickly. The site were weary of guys turning up and not sticking it out, especially if the plant invested money on them. It's a tough life. Really tough, and it seems endless. It sounds great when you sit on your arse in A trendy bar in Melbourne, but when you are in a donga on a site with basic amenities and it's a Friday night, it's not so much fun.

Thirdly, the operations are quite specific. Long wall mining, Pearce Smith converters, cast houses, and furnaces, Noranda reactors, flotation tanks, hydro cyclones and dense medium separation plants, are all semi unique even to individual operations. unless you speak the speak and understand what the hell the operation does you are just another mouth to feed. If the plant wants a cast house worker they expect them to know what the hell it does.

If I wanted to work in the resources industry now, I would get some tickets under my belt. Fork lift, crane, truck, welder etc.

Then I would head to the mine area and get ANY job. Sweeping up in the local fab shop. Drink in the bars, get known, stay out of trouble, and chances are you will get a gig. Once you are in, you are in.....

Me too, in the late 1980's. People don't know how hard it is.

The Poms and Kiwis worked their arses off but most of the Aussies were lazy bludgers who whinged all the time, in my experience.

or move overseas and be flown straight in