So she sorts out the tax and all is well with the world. Wrong.

Here is a country that relies on a single industry and out of the blue the goverment announces its going to bite the hand that feeds it. It might have climbed down a lot, but those looking at investing in mining here are going to have a longer memory and the shock of what the goverment tried to do will not be forgoten. That and the fact we all know that taxes dont decrease in size or magnitude. They have a nasty habbit of going the other way. In fact now the voters in QLD and WA have been bribed sufficiently to get her through the next election, it will be interesting to see if we see increases in the tax as soon as the election is over.

The soverign risk of Australia is now a significant issue.

Don't forget the hand that feeds the mining industry - AUSTRALIA'S natural resources. The reason why resources are in fact a special case and Australia deserves a reasonable return.

Wouldn't it have been better to increase the royalties mining companies pay to the states? Would have looked better than a money grab to get the Fed. Gov. out of the financial mess they got themselves into.

The less they pay the more someone else pays. The key is structuring the tax to encourage investment and the tap into super profits. Someone else in the economy will be taxed more if the miners are taxed less.

WA is already doing that.

That was the easy and sensible option, but this is politics, I think the Liberals may have suggested that, therefore Labor had to do something different. No party can ever do what the other side suggests....

I totally agree...

I totally agree too.

The vast majority of the profits from Australia's resource exports are going to a few well connected locals and mostly to major overseas corporations. Its nothing less than a pillage of this countries natural wealth by a select few, and they should pay into the countries balance sheet. If the commodities are deemed too expensive now, Australia will loose nothing in the long term by leaving them unexploited until such times as the world is willing to pay fair value for them.

In the meantime the profits from natural resource taxes could be properly employed by building out the countries infrastructure and developing a true productive base here. Like manufacturing and high technology, not just being the sandpit for the true productive nations. The only problem I have with the MSPT is that its being paid into super, rather than developing the country for the decades to come.

Reasonable return and an encouragement to invest. The latter is more important but won't happen without return.

The name of the tax is a super profits tax. If structured correctly it would tax on profits above a reasonable return.

Now who do you want to lose out instead?

This maybe a very simplistic viewpoint but these natural resources aren't going anywhere. Therefore when the rest of the World has been pillaged then I'm sure every single mining company would be willing to pay whatever it costs to get their hands on the Australian reserves.

I'm just disappointed that Joe Public can't put together some tv & radio ads criticising the Government for allowing councils to increase their rates above the agreed threshold.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. The public is being asked to feel sorry for foreign firms being taxed on massive profits from hauling Australia's assets overseas, and many are swallowing it.

The operative word here is Profits, give me a choice of no income or being taxed on my income and I'll choose the latter, so will the mining companies.

Be careful here--don't forget China[I think the largest buyer of Australian resources?}is developing huge new resources in Brazil and Africa.Anyone on a visit to the latter will be amazed at the level of penetration of the African economies by China.They are even taking over areas of agriculture in places such as Zambia.It is really latter day colonialism;but with a very much under the counter political influence

China and Japan are the major destinations. China is also buying Australian farms for food security.

They do pay tax though and royalties to the states. Why should they be singled out to pay "super" tax. If we are going to have a super tax it should be across the board and include banks, real estate developers, individuals.

Because the goalposts have moved. Say 10 years ago the government(s) were taking a figure of about 1/3 of resource profits as royalties...and everyone was apparently happy with that situation. Now that figure is more like 1/7. The government is seeking to move that figure back towards where it was years ago when everyone was seemingly happy. I could see the advantage of the tax - aren't royalties paid regardless of profit?