From The Australia Institute today comes the following scathing assessment of the mining tax’s repeal, which represents a massive victory for vested interests over those of the ordinary Australian:
The saga of the mining tax in Australia is a great tale of vested interests versus average Australians. With an apparent deal for the repeal sewn up, it appears that the vested interests have won.
The mining industry fought hard against it right from the beginning, when the first super profits tax was announced by the Rudd Government. Despite being an economically well-crafted tax that would have had no impact on jobs or investment, the mining industry ran hard against it, succeeding in rewriting the tax into something that was going to collect far less revenue.
It is the duty of mining executives to act in the best interests of their shareholders, so it is understandable that they wanted to pay less tax. But it is in duty of the government to act in the best interests of its citizens. It’s hard to see how the government has done that.
Australia’s minerals are owned by the people. The government has an important role in ensuring they get the best deal for these non-renewable resources. It’s pretty obvious the government is failing in that duty. It’s equally hard to fathom why the government values the largely foreign-owned mining companies over those that elected them to stand up for their interests.
The government has not just been content to transfer revenue from the budget to the mining companies at a time when they claim we have a budget emergency; they have also decided to take another swipe at low income earners.
The deal that the government put together with the Palmer United Party will also include the scrapping over the next few years of a number of spending programs. These include the low-income superannuation contribution, which helps low income Australians save for retirement. It will also see the eventual scrapping of the schoolkids bonus and income support bonus.
These measures disproportionally hurt those on lower incomes.
The repeal of the mining tax closes a sad chapter in Australian political history, when powerful lobby groups with deep pockets are able to trump the best interests of average Australians.
You might think that mining companies were able to convince ordinary Australians that the mining tax was bad news and should be scrapped. While they did try, they were spectacularly unsuccessful. The mining tax has always had majority support of the Australian people. In the most recent poll the Australia Institute asked a representative group of Australians what they thought of the repeal. Only 16 per cent thought it should be repealed.
Shows what deep pockets can achieve in Australia today.
Hear, hear.
