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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/10/its-time-to-properly-tax-mining-and-gas-giants-australians-shouldnt-suffer-as-those-companies-profit>
"It’s never too late to fix a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s you who has
been putting off a trip to the doctor or your country that has been putting off
properly taxing its natural resources, it really is better late than never.
Just because the former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello failed to cash in on
the resources boom of the early 2000s, and just because the mining industry
succeeded in scuttling the Rudd government’s mining tax in 2009, doesn’t mean
Australia should let the benefits of record commodity prices slip through our
fingers yet again. Failing to do something sensible twice before is hardly a
good reason to repeat the mistake a third time.
This year Norway, with a population of only 5.3 million, will collect about
$137bn in revenue from their oil industry. They had expected $95bn but will
collect nearly 50% more than planned, mainly because of higher oil and gas
prices. That’s what a good resource tax system looks like.
Meanwhile here in Australia, despite being the world’s third largest exporter
of fossil fuels, people are struggling with high prices for petrol, gas and
electricity (the vast majority of which is still produced from burning our own
coal and gas). The idea that an energy exporter like Australia is having a
tough time when the prices of our energy exports are sky high shows just how
broken and detached from reality our political debate has become.
The profit share of GDP is at record highs, the wage share is at record lows,
real wages are falling, and the Reserve Bank of Australia is lifting interest
rates to rein in inflation caused more by profits than consumers.
And in a valiant attempt to defend the indefensible, the Business Council of
Australia may have thrown the mining industry under the bus, while trying to
argue that profits aren’t coming at the expense of wages.
The BCA’s chief economist Stephen Walters says that “after excluding the miners
and banks, which are distorting this data and where wages are amongst the
highest in the nation, the broader profit share actually has fallen”.
Just think about that. The lobby group for big business is admitting that the
profits of the mining industry are so enormous they are skewing the national
statistics. Could there be a stronger case for an overhaul in the way we tax
these companies?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
