I respect you opinion but don't agree with it. I don't think you...

I respect you opinion but don't agree with it.

I don't think you will get an argument against the need for taxation. It is how those taxes are spent that most don't like. In general there is enough money in the tax system, it is just spent poorly by both LNP and Labor governments.

This levy/royalty is a state based levy. It doesn't benefit all Australians, but it does benefit the Qld government of the day in implementing their programs.

Most of the COVID payments to business you refer to was to use the business as a conduit to pass these payments onto workers, which of course looks a lot better than having these workers unemployed and the unemployment rate soar. It's a sort of off balance sheet tactic to hide the real number.

The issue with the royalty hike is the magnitude of the increase in the royalty, and it's effect on the ability of companies to repay debt from the profits they rely on in good times. Mining is a cyclical industry and if State governments put a super profit tax in good times, then no one will want to invest in the bad times, which means less jobs, less state based payroll tax, less income tax, less company tax and less gst. It also has a significant impact on the support companies (think welders, electricians, accountants, local shops etc) and their families. I'm pretty sure that if someone's top marginal tax rate went up 250%, they wouldn't be happy.

Capitalism is built on risk takers. It is the risk takers that spot opportunities, develop them, finance them and in turn create jobs, tax and profits.

Regarding your comments about governments helping industry, checkout the amount of red tape a company has to go through in Qld to get a mine operational, so that they can employ people and pay the same state government payroll tax, GST (indirectly) and royalties. At no stage in any investment I've made has any Government actually tried to make the process easier for companies, they may have rhetoric but if they wanted to actually help they would try and assist, help grease the wheels, and speed up the process, rather than get in the way of business with the standard "no" and we want more consultants reports.