Mining Is Easy, Says Rudd

"Australia is a lucky country, run by second rate people who share its luck," wrote Donald Horne in The Lucky Country. Was he right? Is everything about Australia simply a product of luck? Prime Minister K-Rudd definitely agrees that our mineral resources are a nice coincidence. That's why he believes every Australian should be getting a fair share of the mining industry's riches. So he is doing the right thing by our population by knocking mining companies with a 40 per cent tax.

But what is this mining tax anyway? And why should you care about an issue that includes possibly the two most boring words in the English language, 'mining' and 'tax'?

Rudd says that revenue from the tax is the only way to pay for proposed superannuation boosts and company tax cuts. "It's time that the people got a fairer share and about a third of this amount goes to superannuation for working families, a third of it goes to tax cuts for small business and businesses in general and another third goes to investment in our future infrastructure needs," Mr Rudd said.

However, according to the Liberals, the mining tax is a socialist conspiracy, taken from the manifesto of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

In 2005, Chavez began a program of populist measures of nationalisation and land seizures and he railed against foreigners investing in the nation's oil industry in particular.

A recent report from Venezuela's central bank showed that almost $100 billion has been taken out of the country since that time, resulting in a looming economic crisis.

Similarly, Rudd has lashed out at "foreign companies" like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as taking Australian profits overseas.


Tony Abbott is as usual, whinging like a little girl: “Kevin Rudd does not have a plan for the economy, he has a plan to kill the mining boom stone dead,” he cried. “What we have from the Labor Party is a complete failure to govern. In the new tax on the mining sector we have a dagger aimed at the absolute heart of our economy."

The idea is that the mining tax will discourage foreign investment in Australia, resulting in job losses and (if we are to believe Tony Abbott) complete anarchy.

In truth, the shittiest thing about this 40 per cent mining tax is that it assumes Australia has simply been lucky in regards to its resources. It is not as easy as digging them up and packing them on a ship. Generations of Australian workers, engineers and geologists have created some of the world's most successful mines. If mining was as simple as just drilling a hole and finding stuff in rock, there would not be so many mining disasters. Take the mining accident in China last year that killed over 100 people in Heilongjiang Province.

Maybe the resources tax is not such a bad idea if it means more money will be spent on the future of Australia. However, if the government does not direct these taxes in the correct way, they could be facing a wave of public discontentment similar to that seen in Greece over the past week. At least three people have been killed in the capital as protesters set fire to a bank over the government's planned austerity measures (austerity is when a government reduces its spending and/or increases user fees to pay back creditors).

This situation shows that the government can not get away with wasting public money. Watch your back K Rudd!