The other day I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald that quite annoyed me.
It was not the way it was written, or whether I had doubts over its content. I just found the subject matter offended me given the public discussion since last September over what Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey call the age of “entitlement”.
The article was by Gareth Hutchens and was a piece on the $18 Billion in assistance that has been given to the mining and energy sector over the past six years by State Governments.
$18 Billion dollars is a lot of money no matter if you’re Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart, or someone struggling to feed the kids on minimum wage.
What offended me is that we have been told for so long how business must be left to stand on its own two feet by those in the Coalition and the right-wing media.
Why is this not the case with the mining and energy sectors?
For those who work in the struggling car industry sector this news must come as a kick in the teeth.
It has been estimated that over the next few years that 50,000 workers in the auto industry will find themselves looking for new employment, as the big car manufacturers shut up shop here, and the hundreds of small businesses that rely on them find themselves going under.
This is because the Abbott government decided it would no longer support the subsidies that kept these 50,000 people employed and paying tax.
Also feeling abandoned by our current Federal Government would be all the Qantas workers who were let go after Abbott and Hockey decided they weren’t worth saving from the chopping block.
Those who face uncertain times ahead due to these decisions by the Abbott government must have serious questions when seeing Clive Palmer drive to parliament in a Mercedes Sports car one day and a Rolls Royce the next and wonder why he is receiving subsidies.
The State and Federal governments seem happy to continue subsidising Gina Rineharts mining empire as she flies around in her private jet. However when it comes to helping out our fruit farmers and SPC the Federal Government they wanted no part of it, and it was only after a long ugly campaign that the Victorian State Government finally stepped in with some dollars to save some face.
Although in their wisdom the Coalition gave $16 Million to Cadbury in Tasmania so Eric Abetz could play Willy Wonka, or something else that rhymes with it. However that boost to Tassies tourism the $16M was to bring looks set to fail with the Cadbury factory tours it was funding not even operating on weekends.
We also need to bear in mind that $18 Billion represents only state government subsidies and assistance, it does not include any assistance from the Federal Government,
Gina Rinehart – In dire need of subsidies?
Over the coming weeks Tony Abbott will be seeking to raise the fuel excise in what will effectively be a travel tax as part of his budget. While Abbott and his Coalition conspirators seek to punish us for our need to travel, the mining sector will continue to receive a government subsidy on diesel fuel.
Not only will the miners receive the government’s gift of discounted fuel while we pay extra, Abbott is also seeking to scrap the mining tax as well.
As the well-respected Fairfax economics editor Ross Gittins pointed out in an article yesterday we are currently under taxing the mining sector.
The Mining sector in Australia is largely foreign-owned and sends most of its profits overseas so why on earth would we want to give them a tax break? Are we really comfortable in subsidising foreign interests and not out own?
Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with political donations could it?
I personally have nothing at all against subsidies, after all one person’s subsidy is another person’s investment, however the government should not favour one particular sector over all others.
What I do detest though is the complete lack of transparency on this issue from a government that seems to more closely resemble a board of Mining Industry lobbyists than any sort of decent government.
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Thank you again, Peter. Could not agree more with your comments. The fiasco that is the Abbott government is a total disgrace with its blatant favouritism towards those that give most to the Liberals’ ‘war chest’.
Have posted this on Twitter, Facebook & Google+. Your words need to be seen far & wide. 🙂
Prime Minister Abbott should be asked to write a report for the Australian Public outlining exactly how the $18 billion mining subsidy is benefiting Australians and how allowing the industry to pay a pittance in tax is in our interests as well. That would make very interesting reading (my guess is his central argument would be ‘Jesus loves big business so we must give them everything they want’).
And the foreign owned gas companies have forward sold all our gas overseas and our domestic gas prices will double or triple. World parity pricing. Wwonder what the world parity price on polluted artesian water exports is, not much i suppose bit of a world glut.
gee we’re stupid.
Just another Abbott lie, Jesus didn’t love big business, as the fairy tale goes he didn’t like them insider trading in the temple and got crucified (and then franchised) last saw the little commie bugger leaning on a cross
As wixxy pointed out, $18bn is just what the states fork out. Closer to $120bn from feds & they pay the bare minimum in tax, if at all!
Any incoming government, must have as a policy, taxing the mining industry 78%, like Norway. There would be more money than you could poke a stick at.
If they squeal, no subsidies whatever. Make them build their own roads, ports and other infrastructure or pay the government to do so.
Time we took a great big new stick to these, and other, corporate bludgers.
It’s not as if they can take their business elsewhere – they want what we’ve got and they don’t need bribes to stay here. It’s favours for the big end of town at the expense of the rest of us.
A very one sided rant, felt like reading a headline from a news site over and over again. Understand the nature of mining and oil & gas industries, you will see how quickly jobs, revenue and growth are pulled from Australia due to the high project costs. Fact is if a project in another country provides a higher IRR then there is no incentive to conduct an equivalent project in Australia where a lower IRR would be achieved without subsidies.
Yes, I can see how the mining companies are struggling from high project costs by their record profits. I can also see how the reducing our costs to be more in line with third world countries would benefit the industry and maybe get Gina a new jet.
However, the fact is, there is more to the equation than just price, the same goes for any industry. That is why we still export so much, and why we have many new projects in the pipeline.
Finally we seem to be asking the right questions I think we should consider droping the rate of gst this would increase consumer confidence and actually raise funds for the government the current suggestions will only slow the ecconomy and reduce the government purse; not smart enough to realise this. Small buisiness are doing it tough and are close to breaking this will hurt if its not fixed as its small buisiness that keep the country together Problem with the large scale operations is that most CEOs think only about their own pocket this needs to change as most dont have ownership of what consiquences there decisions make.