moderated thursday, page-83

Voltaire,

I didn't read the actual proposed legislation but I read something about there being a subsidy during leaner times. Do you know anything about this??

A tax is a tax but expecting every other taxpayer to subsidise the mining sector when things are at their most difficult was a bit of information that had me fairly concerned. It was a pretty big problem in Victoria for about twenty or thirty years with the Aluminium smelter at Portland... Prices were high at the time it was built and the government signed an electricity supply agreement that was linked to the price of Aluminium. The trouble of course though was that the government had unrealistic expectations of future prices and was very generous with everyone else's cash.