I’m not arguing against the imposition of royalties as such, and agree that there’s a respectable case for taxpayers (through their governments) to share some of the financial benefits through royalties when natural resources are developed for commercial purposes. There’s an important question, however, of the level of royalties imposed, and how the financial benefits should be shared between the companies who bear the exploration and development costs and wear the associated risks (as 87Crash points out), and governments on behalf of taxpayers. That’s where I have my gripe.
Queensland’s coal royalties regime is the most onerous in the world, with royalty levels far in excess of the levels imposed by other State governments and comparable jurisdictions around the world. That might be (marginally) easier to accept if the government imposing the royalties were an effective manager of public resources, careful in its spending decisions and responsible in its management of the State budget. Clearly that is not the case in Queensland (or in most Australian States, to be fair), and the Queensland Government has simply taken the easy way out of its budgetary mess by raising its royalties on coal to extortionate levels.
It’s high time to send this incompetent and irresponsible government packing — not for its coal royalties regime as such, but for its appalling record of incompetence in so many domains (think Covid, health/hospitals, education, youth crime, policing and justice, Olympics, and so on). I’d hoped and expected that matters would improve when Premier Chook left the red carpet but if anything, they’ve deteriorated further under Mr Smiley. Assuming a change of government in October (surely!), strong pressure should be placed on David Cristafulli to moderate (not remove) the current royalties regime while bringing some order and discipline into management of the State budget.
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