enough pub talk, who cares what some drunk says in a pub.
The fact is TTY must be making money with the current IO price.
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
Paul Henderson is Kevin Rudd?s puppet, slavishly supporting the Prime Minister?s resources tax grab and standing-over the Territory?s resources sector in the process.
Opposition Leader, Terry Mills, said the Chief Minister?s claim that ?mining companies can and should pay more? tax sends an appalling message to the sector about how business is done in the Territory.
?It defies logic that the Territory Government continues to support the Super Tax,? Mr Mills said.
?Governments in Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and even Victoria want the tax changed, but Paul Henderson and Kon Vatskalis are welded to this RSPT.
?In 2008-09, resources contributed $6.7billion to the Northern Territory economy ? by far the largest private sector driver ? yet the Government wants to squeeze more blood out of the stone.?
Mr Mills said the Resources Minister?s ignorance was on display when he insisted 20% of the tax would be returned to the mining companies.
?I?ll admit there?s a lot of confusion surrounding Kevin Rudd?s super tax, but Kon Vatskalis today brought Ministerial incompetence to a new level,? he said.
?The Territory Government will take 20% and the Commonwealth will take the rest. There?s nothing going back to the mining companies, just a 40% tax slug.
?It?s a grave concern that the Resources Minister wasn?t across this detail.
?I wonder if this incorrect view has contributed to Labor?s support for the tax.
?And the Chief Minister?s assertion that half the Territory?s resources sector would not be affected by the RSPT because it?s covered by the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax neglected a crucial point.
?The massive Bayu Undan gas field falls outside the scope of the Rent Resource Tax ? it?s in the Joint Petroleum Development Area - and the Laminaria-Corallina fields are well past peak production.
?It?s a sign of the Henderson Government?s struggle to sensibly defend the Super-Profits Tax that it has to resort to clutching at straws to do so.?
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