If only Australia had a mining super profits tax…

Two of the biggest policy failures this century are:

1. The failure to implement a mining super profits tax; and
2. The failure to reserve gas for the East Coast domestic market when the Queensland Curtis Island LNG export trains were approved and then built.

As I noted yesterday, East Coast Australian gas users are now paying some of the highest gas and electricity prices in the world, while our Western Australian cousins, whose government had the foresight to reserve domestic gas, are enjoying the lowest energy costs in the OECD:

To add further insult to injury, China – which receives over 70% of East Coast gas exports – typically pays less than Australian users of that same gas on the East Coast.