What that lone hard nosed WA premier was hinting at is that he is not going to give up the royalties and administration of the mines to the numptys in Canberra to bungle. "In fact he thought that the states were about to hand their mining royalties and responsibilities for the administration of the mining industry to Canberra."
Where does this put the mining tax situation. Lets see, both Govts have about bankrupted much of our manufacturing industry by removing all protection and exposing them to subsidized competition.
They have half way worked their way through the rural industrys as well. Chinese are buying up all the dairy farms that have been pushed out of business.
They havnt had a chance to get at the successfull mining industry yet. I would imagine the 30% company tax the miners have been paying came in handy. But that is not nearly enough as all industries already under their care are imploding.
Now from what the WA premier is saying he is not going to roll over on this. eg the Hospitals.
Now they havnt got control of the mining yet and have already had a negative effect on the industry just at the thought of them being in control.
With BHP making mega potash takeover plans overseas, I have to imagine the $20b of expansion of Olympic Dam has been shelved. Can you imagine the Greens keeping their hands off uranium?
Xstrata making plans to open up iron ore mining in Africa. " For example, last week Xstrata (XSRAF, news, msgs) agreed to a $381 million acquisition of Sphere Minerals (SVESF, news, msgs), an Australian mining company with iron ore deposits in Mauritania. Mauritania is the only West African country that exports iron ore, but, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the region has the potential to produce 10% of the world's iron ore supply."
Brazil plans to double iorn ore production.
The WA govt actually took a savage cut in royalties for many years to attract much of this investment, now the federal govt wants to get their hands on it and squeeze it for all they can to pay for their pork promises. I dont think so. Go Colin.
Julia can promise all the apprentice places she likes, but if industry is contracting then she is just deceiving the voters. Helping east coast industry including small farmers, should be priority. Maybe start with a 5% tarrif increase on everything as Bob suggested.
