GH You accept that farmers should not pay the fuel excise so there is NO case to be made for the miners to pay one. On your own admission it is billions a year, surely an unfair impost on exporting companies. If miners had to pay this the mining industry would not have carried Rudd through the GFC.
And I'm aware that a mining lease was granted in NSW on the proviso that they provide coal at a guaranteed price which, at the moment is below export price. This is "forward selling", a common practice for mines to guarantee a sale of their product so they can finance development of the mine. BUT the greens insist there should be no export market for coal, so how can they whinge when a contract price is below a price they insist shouldn't exist?
