Its a tax on gold miners, not on the metal itself. Why the government wants to complicate the minerals resource rent tax by including or excluding particular natural resources in the first place I don't know. The gold in the ground belongs to Australians just as much as the coal in the ground does.
however, maybe this is good in a sense for it means that marginally profitable gold miners go under or their productive capacity is reduced, reducing supply it is still a poor decision in terms of the nation's wealth, imo
Yes well, all of that is true to some extent but so is the fact that all the gold in the ground (along with all the coal, iron ore, zinc, silver, copper and everything else) belongs to me, you and everyone else who lives in the country. The government is effectively selling it to mining companies and they're selling it very, very cheaply at the moment. The MRRT is a simple business transaction where one side (the government) is increasing the price of the goods that is paid by the other side (the mining companies). For all the people who can't or don't want to increase their existing stake in the minerals by purchasing shares in private mining companies (i.e. the Australian people), the MRRT is a good deal.
so get a lease and go explore it for yourself, its yours afterall? Companys invest hugely in the economy, create jobs, pay royalties to the states and then pay 30% company tax on profits. You and bob brown want australia as a stalin state where free enterprise is steymied by greedy centralists. Its bad enough living in a welfare state please dont help it become a Gulag.
(re Big AD) That's a viewpoint that some take and so be it But it is not mine I think tax is legislated theft no matter which way the salad is dressed It is effectively cold water on enterprise Until people are prohibited from emigration, then logically, people who wish to contribute effectively to the gold mining industry will, if able and willing, simply pull up stumps and vote with their feet
Hazlitt described the problem well. Productive capacity is the essence of an economy. Tax simply appropriates capital and redistributes it. As Hiho (soz mate ) well articulates, we will never see the jobs that might have been, but for taxation. In our present situation, the deleterious effect of taxing such a precious resource in such a manner might well compound by loss of intellectual capital, not to mention the jobs that might have been but for the tax.
On the other hand, if we think that gold is going much higher in the future, why is it so important we dig it all up and sell it all overseas right now for a song?
The Greens, as much as I supported their ideals in the naivete of late adolescence, essentially have a totalitarian stance, imo. One which is thoroughly pernicious to productive capacity. Look not at what they say, so much as what they have done.
nobody said dig it all up nobody said sell it for a song nobody said sell it overseas what is on the cards is forcible appropriation of capital which might have been used to create jobs and a richer tax base through private industry job creation
If your free enterprise makes its money selling something that belongs to me, I want a decent cut. It's as simple as that. You're free to run your enterprise as you see fit. I don't care how you you it, but if you're digging my stuff out of the ground and flogging it to the Chinese, I want to be paid for it. You're free to take those terms or leave them. You're free to dig somebody else's stuff out of the ground in another country and flog that to the Chinese instead if you can get better terms than the ones I'm offering. Many other free enterprises do just that and I don't hold it against them because they're free to do as they like. As I said, its a simple business transaction. One half of the market is saying the product is worth more than it's currently being sold for and is adjusting the asking price.
