Some people would say that all taxation is theft. I don’t accept that, but in the case of the Rudd government’s so-called Resources Super Profit Tax theft is occurring at two levels. That is what has got me angry about the tax, and I suspect it underlies a lot of the public opposition to it […]
Continue Reading...Posts in ‘Australian Politics’
Rudd’s kleptocratic resources tax
Monday, June 7th, 2010No increase in sovereign risk?
Friday, May 28th, 2010I frequently don’t get to watch the 7:00 pm news, but last night I did and was astounded to see Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, looking as arrogant and inflated as the mining bosses his RSPT diminishes, intoning that it does not represent an increase in sovereign risk.
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Posted by Graham at 12:34 am |
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Further to Julie Bishop’s “gaffe”
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010If Australia’s spies aren’t forging passports, they’re not doing their job properly. Julie Bishop was just stating the obvious. Barrie Cassidy has a good take on the issue. Bishop’s only gaffe was her semi-backdown.
Continue Reading...Revised effects of the Resource Rental Tax
Sunday, May 9th, 2010Citi has revised its calculation of the cost to the mining community of the Resource Rental Tax and the table is below. There are a few offsets that their original calculations left out, so they’ve run a 10 year model after consultation with the tax department. The summary statistics that you need to know from […]
Continue Reading...Some reasons why miners are upset and you should be too
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010Total Australian taxes on mining will be 45% higher than their next nearest rival the USA and 152% higher than Canada. Australia is about to lose a significant share of world mining activity and income.
Continue Reading...Second as farce: Asylum seekers and Piers Akerman
Thursday, April 1st, 2010Piers Akerman has been testing his vast capacity for self-parody. His piece in Monday’s Telegraph on asylum seekers reads as if written on a bet or a dare. The frenzy whipped up over asylum seekers after the Tampa’s arrival was a tragedy for this country. Akerman seems determined to repeat it as farce. Akerman brands the government’s […]
Continue Reading...The art of the apology
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010It is apparently much easier to show sympathy to abstract stolen generations when you bear no responsibility than it is to those for whose hurt you share corporate and personal responsibility.
Continue Reading...Zero taxation and lots of representation
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010Adele Ferguson wrote in the SMH (Feb 17) that at least 40% of the biggest companies in Australia pay no tax. That must mean they aren’t profitable, since profits gets taxed, don’t they? But the tax man is going after them, which makes you wonder how long this has been the case. It can’t be […]
Continue Reading...Abbott channels Howard and Rudd channels?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Lucien Leon lectures in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences and made this animation which he calls a “poltoon”. It’s clear what he thinks of Tony Abbott, but what is he saying about Kevin Rudd. Was that Mahler that his imported car was playing on the stereo?
Continue Reading...Tis the season to conspire
Monday, December 28th, 2009Breathe in, take a deep breath, slowly breathe out, and feel yourself sinking deeper. Another breath, and you are even deeper into that hole of personal debt that so many of us share….opps! that was the spiel for a different story. While Australians now, we are told, owe more than the national GDP, few are […]
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