Greens say they will raise Mining Super Tax
Fairfax press reports that Senator Brown declared yesterday that he was not bound by the tax agreement hatched earlier this month between Labor and BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. He claims he will have a re-election mandate to increase the tax.
The super tax is far from dead and today it's clear that Gillard has done a preference deal with a man determined to increase the tax. Sign our petition, spread the word and tell the Senate you DON'T want the tax. We have only three weeks to send the message to Labor, Liberal and Independents and unless a significant number of Australians stand up, an increased mining tax will almost certainly become law under a Gillard-Brown Government.
Asked if a re-elected Labor government would have a mandate to pass the mining tax, he replied: “I’m going to the election saying I want a bigger return from the big miners and I would expect more than one million people will vote for that, so I will have a mandate from where I sit in the Senate.”
Julia Gillard might claim she did no deal, but an increase to taxes and spending is the price Australia will have to pay.
See the full article from the AFR below.
Miners warn on Brown’s tax plans
PUBLISHED: 22 Jul 2010 05:24:57 PRINT EDITION: 22 July 2010
John Breusch, Matthew Dunckley and Peter Kerr
The mining industry has warned investor confidence in the sector will be undermined after the Greens declared they
would try to use their expected balance of power in the Senate to extract more revenue from miners through the
resources rent tax.
The industry’s concerns emerged as Tony Abbott stepped up pressure on Labor over its preference deal with the
Greens, claiming Julia Gillard was preparing to introduce a carbon tax that would cause a big jump in electricity
prices.
Senator Brown declared yesterday that he was not bound by the tax agreement hatched earlier this month between
Labor and BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. Asked if a re-elected Labor government would have a mandate to pass the mining tax, he replied: “I’m going to the election saying I want a bigger return from the big miners and I would expect more than one million people will vote for that, so I will have a mandate from where I sit in the Senate.”
Senator Brown told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday that he wanted to change the resources tax to
raise an extra $600 million – enough to cut the company tax rate for small business from 30 per cent to 28 per cent,
instead of the 29 per cent rate proposed under the package the government negotiated with the mining industry.
Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer issued a statement yesterday to warn Senator Brown’s comments
indicated Labor’s compromise on the resources tax could be “rendered null and void”. He said: “It defies explanation
as to why the Greens want to cripple this country and attack the industry which successfully kept Australia from
recession. “This statement by Senator Brown sets a dangerous precedent for Australia’s economic prosperity after the August
21 election.”
Mr Palmer, a major donor to Queensland’s Liberal National Party, said Senator Brown’s comments underlined the
risks of Labor’s preference deal with the Greens, which reinforces the minor party’s chances of gaining the balance
of power in the Senate. “If people want the country to remain on a positive economic track, don’t vote for the Greens or Labor,” he said.
The group representing small miners, which is in the final throes of deciding whether to relaunch the anti-tax
advertising campaign it shelved at the behest of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, said the latest utterings by the Greens
added to uncertainty destabilising the industry.
“This is just going to put a serious question mark in the minds of offshore investors, who won’t even think about
Australia,” Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Simon Bennison said.
“Small, start-up miners will find getting access to finance almost impossible if these guys keep making threatsaround the parameters of the tax.”
Despite attacks on corporate Australia over fast food, mining and population management, Senator Brown denied he
had a problem with big business. “I’m very robustly pro-small business and I don’t see why small business should have to pay an extra 1 per cent tax because Julia Gillard backed down to the big miners,” he said.
Mr Abbott said the preference deal with the Greens indicated Labor was planning to introduce a carbon tax.
“We’ve already seen electricity prices go up by 35 per cent over the last three years, they will go through the roof
with a carbon tax,” he told Sydney’s 2GB radio.
But Ms Gillard has declared no policy deals were made with the Greens under the preference swap.
The Australian Financial Review
