The government today has finally secured the repeal of the mining tax, after agreeing to keep the schoolkids bonus and two measures for low income earners until after the 2016 election. As part of a deal…
1. Julie Bishop: Australia has the right to return asylum seeker boats to Indonesia “We cannot escape from the fact that they are Indonesian boats with Indonesian crews from Indonesian ports. Of course…
The mining tax is fraught with significant design issues. But can it be fixed?
AAP
The Commonwealth government’s mining tax, the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT), has been a continuing source of controversy. It is easy to point to its significant problems, but a considerable challenge…
Marius Kloppers will retire as BHP Billiton’s CEO in May.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Georgina Moore, The Conversation
Marius Kloppers, who today announced his intention to resign as CEO of mining firm BHP Billiton, leaves behind a formidable legacy in both mining and politics as head of a firm that campaigned for a scaled-down…
Martin Ferguson, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan announced the MRRT in 2010 … but three ministers and three miners do not a policy make.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Most controversial public policy could be said to be made on the run, or at least amended on a brisk walk. So the revelations in Peter Martin’s recent article on the errors embedded in the Gillard government’s…
The abolition of royalties, as well as fluctuations in iron ore and coal prices, have had an effect on the mining tax’s capacity to generate revenue.
AAP
Why hasn’t the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) produced significant revenue? The answer lies in a combination of basic features of the MRRT design, and the recent fluctuation in prices of iron ore and…
The mining tax has raised less in its first six months than the government expected.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Sally Zou, The Conversation
Treasurer Wayne Swan today announced that the mining tax had raised $126 million in the six months following its introduction, well below the $2 billion the government had expected it to yield this financial…
Fortescue founder and current non-executive chairman, Andrew Forrest has been a prominent critic of the federal government’s mining tax. The company has finally launched a much anticipated High Court challenge to the tax.
AAP
Perth-based mining giant Fortescue Metals Group has launched a last-minute High Court action against the mining tax, planning to argue the legislation - due to start on July 1 - breaches the Australian…
If we’re going to talk about how safe CSG is (or isn’t), we need to look at the full picture.
AAP/Origin Energy
The Mineral Resources Rent Tax passed through the House of Representatives last week, but not without negotiations with the Greens and independent MPs. Perhaps the most significant outcome of negotiations…
Paul Cleary’s book, Too Much Luck, highlights the many negative consequences of the mining boom.
AAP
Paul Cleary’s book Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom and Australia’s Future, is a timely appraisal of the dramatic economic and social impacts, as well as the political ramifications of the current resource…
Changes to the MRRT will leave a gaping hole the revenue the tax originally promised.
AAP
Federal Labor’s mining profits tax was originally designed to be a redistributive measure from a very profitable section of capital to all of capital through company tax cuts. The mini-me Mineral Resources…
Paul Cleary’s book, Too Much Luck, paints a negative picture of Australia’s mining industry.
AAP
CORRECTION: Stephen Kirchner’s review of Paul Cleary’s book Too Much Luck said he “wants the Foreign Investment Review Board to use its powers to force foreign companies to buy local”, and that he has…
Will Andrew Forrest succeed in his push to change the mining tax? Others have succeeded in the past.
AAP
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s visit to Canberra earlier this week didn’t prove particularly effective in swaying the government on its freshly drafted mineral resources rent tax (MRRT) legislation. But the…