Sound and Fury: the Resources Tax
Sound and Fury: The Resources Tax Issue 12, August 2010 | Sarah Burnside Illustrating that this is an era of globalised politics, the ill-fated resources super profits tax (RSPT) is now invoked as a warning to other countries against ‘resource nationalism’. In a recent speech to mining executives in London, Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese suggested that ‘policymakers around the world can learn a lesson when considering a new tax to plug a revenue gap, or play to local politics’1. Australia, presumably, has learned its lesson. However, debates over the amended minerals rent resource tax (MRRT) continue. Discussions regarding the proposed tax over the past few months have demonstrated not only the overabundance of acronyms in public life, but some of the inconsistencies in the Australian political discourse. The proposed tax, derived from the Henry Tax Review, was controversial from the outset. In June, The Australian’s editorial warned then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that ‘political leaders who appeal to noisy activists lose elections’2. The editorial criticised the RSPT, urging Rudd to ignore unions and environmentalists and embrace ‘the sensible centre’. The timing was somewhat ironic; mere days earlier West Australians had been treated to ‘noisy activists’ of another political stripe. The ‘billionaires’ rally’ on 8 June, organised by the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC), saw magnates Gina Rhinehart and Andrew Forrest join other protesters in filling the Perth Esplanade with cries of ‘axe the tax’. There seemed to be some cognitive dissonance on the part of the national newspaper: those who were heckling Government ministers, taking to the streets and engaging in public protest (albeit with neat, correctly spelled placards) were not from the left.
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