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| Down Under |
| Australian Election ' Too Close to Call' |
| 2010-08-22 |
| * State broadcaster predicts a hung parliament as both parties have failed to secure 76 seats needed to govern in their own right * Australian PM says vote too close to call |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 sorry that should read... the "states" charge royalties not the "state". Despite the resources being owned by all Australians, the states and territories are the entities that impose the royalties (except uranium) |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-08-23 00:05 |
| #6 hey Phil B yes the media are hopeless at explaining mining royalties mostly because it takes time to research and most reporters have no time in the day to do that reading. You are actually incorrect. Anything more than a metre below the surface of the soil is actually the property of the Commonwealth - ie all citizens of Australia. Not the citizens of the state. But the state charges royalties on extraction to the mining companies for all commodities except Uranium. For gas and oil there is an extra Federal Government royalty on top of the state royalty called the resource rent tax. And yes, in fact the people of Australia have been totally robbed. State Governments have sold off those publicly owned resources for a song. The deals are not transparent and Governments refuse to reveal how much individual project resources change hands for. But here's a hint... in the Northern Territory, Swiss giant Xstrata paid NOT ONE CENT in royalties for all the zinc, lead and silver it mined at McArthur River for more than a decade. No wonder Governments hide behind "commercial in confidence" to avoid telling the truth to the people. Imagine BHP is paying 5 per cent on the profit based regime only to see Xstrata paying nothing - it's a recipe for turmoil and rightly so. Royalties should be transparently charged and administered and the information should be public knowledge. Especially as the public owns the asset that is being sold. I don't doubt there has been corruption in the Mines Ministries and Departments all round the country to allow this fiasco. The mining companies all cried poor when Rudd tried with the new profit-based tax which would have been a doddle anyway as it gave plenty of scope for creative accounting by miners AND guaranteed Government paid 40% of costs. They tried to argue they pay massive taxes, including company and payroll tax. But every company pays those taxes and we don't give them a billion dollars worth of public assets for free. Australia should overhaul its resources taxation system introducing a blanket 5% royalty on Gross Value of Production (not profit). IN addition there should be a 15% domestic reservation policy for all oil, gas, coal, and any other strategic assets we have. This should replace all state-based systems and it should be open to public scrutiny. We should also prevent the Chinese Government from buying more than 30 per cent of the shareholdings of any miner operating in Australia, or from operating Australian mines through their state-owned, state-controlled subsidiary corporations. |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-08-23 00:03 |
| #5 This is going to take up to 10 days. Then it will be out with the axes and knives in the Labor party. They are being sharpened as we speak. The independents are a bunch of fools in this case. Dear God, Argentina here we come! There won't be any crossing of the floor in parliament nor the end of the party system. |
| Posted by: Aussie Mike 2010-08-22 21:05 |
| #4 The mining tax is still extremely unpopular in the big mining states of Western Australia and Queensland. Even after Labor caved in and exempted gold miners and existing mines. The media is even more dismally awful than usual in explaining the issue(s). Prior to being dumped, Rudd was running around saying the tax was justified because the resources belonged to the 'people of Australia', which they don't (they belong to the people of each individual state. Almost all land in WA and QLD is owned by the state). It is precisely because they don't belong to 'the people of Australia' that the tax was formulated in the first place. Essentially its a royalty implemented as a tax because the Australian federal government can't charge a royalty because it doesn't own the resources. Of course, none of this is explained by the media. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-08-22 14:17 |
| #3 How's that |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2010-08-22 13:55 |
| #2 too close to call means conservatives won. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-08-22 10:45 |
| #1 tremendous real democracy the entire lower house should have to vote on every piece of proposed legislation thinking very carefully with people crossing the floor. no more party line |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-08-22 10:25 |