Will even the new watered-down Australian mining tax become law?



It's got to get through the Senate first and then survive a general election

The revamped tax has been hailed as a victory for the Prime Minister, with the Minerals Council describing it as a positive outcome and mining stocks getting a lift from investors.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will not support it. “The next election is a referendum on tax,” Mr Abbott said. Mr Abbott said the battlelines had been drawn and the alternatives were sharp and clear. "Labor supports a great big new tax on mining - the Coalition doesn't," he told reporters. "It's as simple as that."

Labor needed a tax because it had turned a $20 billion budget surplus into a $57 billion deficit, Mr Abbott said. "The Opposition will oppose the new minerals tax," he said. "We will oppose it in opposition and we will rescind it in government.

Mr Abbott said the mining industry had got "the best deal from a bad government". "The miners were effectively negotiating with a gun at their heads, and that's not a situation they should ever have been put into," he said, adding the new deal would still hit the industry hard. "This is still a tax grab rather than tax reform ... A $12 billion tax grab has been replaced with a $10.5 billion tax grab."

Mr Abbott also criticised the government for not consulting widely enough. "It was discussed between the government and three big companies," he said. "There are about 300 other companies that it wasn't discussed with and you shouldn't make any assumptions as to whether they are happy with it."

Mr Abbott called on the government to release the modelling of both schemes to justify its figures. "It's difficult to see... how the original tax could raise $12 billion and how the new tax could raise $10.5 billion given the changes."

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the new tax would deter companies thinking of investing in Australia's resources. "Not only have they got the most complicated taxation regime in the world, but now they have a new tax that is going to raise at least $10.5 billion dollars that is going to have to be paid," he said in Sydney.

The Greens leader Bob Brown said there needs to be scrutiny of the deal. “In the end, Parliament will decide if this Gillard and mining baron deal stands. Australians will have a say at the next election when they elect a new Parliament, including a new Senate,” Senator Brown said.

SOURCE

2 comments:

  1. It`s too late for Abbott. The MFM media propaganda machine will make this out to be a great victory for Gillard, and they will cover for her like they did for Rudd.

    Added to that is the almost 1million new citizens Rudd has brought here (300,000 migrants per year) - mostly from 3rd world labour voting cultures.

    I cant see any possibility of a Lib victory.

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  2. I doubt many of those new Rudd immigrants would be eligible to vote... yet. I was however dismayed at the wholesale support of Waste of Space Maxine by immigrant mainland Chinese in Bennelong where I live.

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