The New Mining Tax

Couple of things worth remembering...

1. Its not a new tax, its not a tax nor new, its mining rental lease fee
2. Being a fee, its a cost of doing business and a tax deductible one 
3. It was waived for the first 15 years. Yes when it was actually at a fair rate, it wasn't paid at all.
4. The proposed raise brings it into line with current day costs & fees, it should have been pegged to CPI or some other index. It wasn't, hasn't & if the CME, oops I mean the 2 big multi billion dollar multi national miners have their way it won't ever be and they'll be paying 25c a tonne in another 50 years when it'll take close to 20 tonnes worth of rental fees to buy a pack of Lifesavers.

 

The CME claims "WA’s two biggest miners pay an average of $19 per tonne in taxes and royalties, not 25 cents as claimed by the WA Nationals."

Actually the two biggest miners pay an average of $19 per tonne in taxes, the Nationals actual claim was the two biggest miners only pay 25 cents on the Mining Rental Fee. There's no confusion here, the miners do not pay 25c per tonne for Royalties...they pay 25c for the Mining rental Lease Fee and have done since it came in...except for the 1st fifteen years where it was completely waived.

On the CME website, the above CME claim is also joined with this beauty...

"CME Chief Executive, Mr Reg Howard-Smith, said the fact-based campaign would counter mistruths put by the WA Nationals in an attempt to justify their job-destroying tax."

Sorry, did we mention its not actually a tax? In the article claiming to be "Fact Based" refers to the 1960s pegged fee as a tax. In fact they use the word tax 12 times. They refer to it as a new tax. It is neither a tax, nor new. Its a fee that's been there since the early 1960s, at the same price since it began. That's accurate, there's the fact based comments you can take to the bank.

 

CME need to be what they claim, they need to become fact based.

 

CME had to yank its anti rental fee advert from the TV due to complaints from Busselton Mayor Grant Henley who appeared in the advert. Mr Henley is in the advert saying "no new investment, no new projects, no new jobs".

 

His complaint after seeing the advert was he didn't know he was appearing in a political advert and was taken out of context.

 

But here, think seriously for a minute and consider the CME's comment from their webpage...

 

“As part of this campaign we are commissioning independent experts to assess any positive or negative impacts of this tax. We will release this information to enable people to make their own decisions based on independent, expert advice.”

 

A few points...

1. Good they acknowledge they've chosen to be a part of the election campaign.
2. Good to see they're commissioning "independent experts" to assess the proposal. Sadly if the people they commission think or assert the fee is a "tax" then they cannot be both independent nor experts.
3.  If the information does not contain a list of pros & cons, it is not independent advice let alone expert. If its solely negatives its a farce.
4. If you see it, assess it closely.

 

One thing is for sure...its not new, its not a tax, it was waived for the first 15 years of its existence in the 1960s and it hasn't been raised since. The updating of the state agreement to 2017 levels does not include the huge financial advantage already forgone by the state and given to the 2 big miners.

Now I'm off to see what all the other parties have nailed their flag on. ONE Nation has already said they oppose "the tax" not knowing its not a fee. One Labor MP & one ex-Labor MP said they oppose the "new tax". If they think its a tax, they're not well informed at all.

I'll check the SFFP, the current One Nation position and then try to find the exact Labor/Liberal duopoly stance.

If the money the Nationals is fair, then the current 25c is unfair and its WA Mums & Dads who've lost the benefit or rather paid the subsidised benefit to Rio Tinto & BHP.

Here's a few other facts to mill over

See the CME comment at the below link...which mentions "tax" 12 times but never mentions "Rio Tinto" or "BHP" once...they're not mentioning the 2 multi national, multi billion dollar companies they're campaigning on behalf of.
https://www.cmewa.com/news-and-events/latest-news/290-fact-based-campaign-to-fight-mining-tax-mistruths

BHP
         - Total Assets (2015)  - US$ 126 Billion
        

Rio Tinto
         - Total Assets (2015)  - US$ 91.56 Billion
        
Just saying