Ken Henry himself said we are not comparable to Norway at all.
However I would support this tax more if it was paid into a future fund.
I think less sovereign risk on taxes that are treated as asset tranfer on balance sheet of nation rather than spending the proceeds on rubbish. Spend your earnings (income tax) and save your capital (mineral wealth).
Henry argues that Norway has a finite resource and they can clearly see the day they lose this industry and be subject to resource cruse type crash.
We will not have this problem by running out of resources like Norway but we may need the banked money as provision to cover the 40% downside risk we will be exposed to. This will give lenders some sense of long term commitment by government to honour this part of the agreement and reduce this sovereign risk speculation.
It would also provide interest earnings that can be used for infrastructure spend and be kept in foreign currency as to reduce the pressure on our currency much the same way the Norwegian fund does.
So maybe not becasue the minerals will run out but because they may dramatically decline in value.
