rrt - the age, page-11

If Rudd wins the next election the tax will go through because the Greens will support it. The Greens are going to do well at the next election because of the ETS saga.

It is true to say the miners will try to negotiate a better position from what has already been announced. But experience has shown that the devil is always in the detail with tax changes. The Government announces the best story it can about the new tax and then we subsequently find out all the little nasty twists and turns in the tax in the implementation phase.

Post election Rudd will be under little pressure to negotiate a better deal for resource companies - quite to the contrary - get the bad news out early in the next term and pull cash into the coffers to pay for the election announcements - both past and future.

The only thing that may stop the RRT is a change of government.

As shown in the recent SA state election, bad governments and unpopular governments can still get re-elected!