The problem we have is our tax system is out dated and can no longer keep up with demand, demand for health, education etc and, we simply have too many hanger oners to take care of, both hear and abroad.

Add this to the prolonged stay in Afganistan and whamo, we are behind the eight ball, big time.

As a result, instead of enjoying the benefits of our resources, both in real time, and for generations to come, we are now reliant on our mineral wealth as a means of survival, and the situation has not been aided by this governments mismanagement and gross waste of both our, and future generations, taxes.

Evidence being in the fact that the government is doing backflips trying to find replacement revenue to keep it's AT ANY COST budget commitment, a commitment that essentially should not have relied on with the MRRT in the first place.

The solution in my opinion is to at least try a transaction tax, whereby our money is taxed, as opposed to us personally.

After all, we personally can only spend money once, but money on the other hand gets continually circulated and, it is this continual circulation that generates the tax.

It is said that just 2% on every finacial transaction would more than replace every tax we have, including PAYG, PAY ROLL, GST and the MRRT.

As to why they won't go there is anyone's guess.

Big business and banks would be one cause.

G'day Mark,
did you read the article? All of it was about just how POTENTIALLY damn far the bucket is from empty. IOW, no one really knows for sure, but what we do know is, that the easy, lucrative and cheap resources are already accounted for.
Is anyone old enough to remember the “Beverly Hillbillies”? Old Jed struck black gold with a stray rifle shot. A comedy yes, but once resources really were that easy to find in some parts of the world.
Now we look for oil in oceans thousands of feet deep, and then dig down thousands more.
Peak Oil was never about running out of oil per se; that's No Oil. Peak Oil is about when maximum production is reached, after which production must decline.
And the price skyrockets.
Any finite resource must eventually reach such a point. It's absolutely inevitable.
The real question is, how much will these undiscovered resources cost?
Economics is about scarcity. To someone with more money than they need, prices aren't critical. The tighter your budget is, the more critical prices are.
How long before oil is a luxury most can't afford? In many parts of the world, we're already there.
How much will the children Mr Barnes is so concerned about have to pay for resources we take for granted? We've already taken houses out of reach for most.
It seems apparent many posters here just can't imagine resources becoming so scarce that most people will not be able to afford them. But consider: to my parents, not being able to afford a simple house on one wage was unimaginable.
Please understand, I'm not actually against mining. I just think this particular justification for living beyond our means is weak, to say the least.

Agreed Rehctub; a transaction tax sounds like a good move.

http://www.democrats.org.nz/OurNews/Articles/tabid/112/selectedmoduleid/548/ArticleID/156/Default.aspx

Our tax system most definitely needs a major overhaul. This comes back to the fundamental crippling problem of our 'pretend' democracy!

That is; the stranglehold that big business (including the big banks) has on government.

Without this enormous bias, I’m sure governments would be very happy to implement a much better tax system…. and to greatly reduce immigration and fully support the urgency of achieving a sustainable society.

So in the first instance, the problem is not tax reform, or the manically antisustainable momentum that our government is imposing on us, it is this all-encompassing and all-corrupting connection between vested-interest, short-term-oriented, big-donations-buys-big-decisions big business and our highly unillustrious decisionmakers!

And the big question has to be: how do we make our government independent of this pressure?

Are there any examples from anywhere in the world where a democratic government is truly democratic, or is this problem just an inherent massive flaw in all so-called democracies?

OK Grim. You've convinced me. Now what are we going to DO about it?

Rather than generalities I think we could look at specific minerals. For starters I doubt economically recoverable iron ore and bauxite are going to run out this century. Whether we have a lot of coal seems questionable if they need to dig up or under prime Hunter Valley farmland. The Chinese could take all our coal in a decade if they were serious. Some Olympic Dam copper concentrate goes to China via the Darwin railway. The Chinese extract uranium from it to power their domestic industry while we get peanuts.

However the commodity of most concern is gas be it natgas, coal seam or fracked shale gas. I think by 2030 we'll wish we hadn't exported so much of it as LNG or burned it here in baseload power stations. Gas is for peaking power, heating, ammonia based fertiliser and probably a major substitute for diesel. Note the brown coal buyout was nixed because replacement gas fired power stations while cheap to build would be too expensive to run.

If you get this analogy we're selling our last shred of dignity for a low price. With depletion we won't seem as pretty to the rest of the world and the money will stop.

Interesting article, of cause, the future of our mineral wealth, and associated benefits, lies wholly and solely in the hands of others, as while we may have the supply, it's worthless without the demand.

Furthermore, if demand slips, prices generally follow, so while we may well have plenty of untapped mineral deposits, they may well cost more to extract than they are worth.

Ludwig, The problem with our so called 'democracy' is that once one exits the polling booth, their democratic rights stay behind, as the only vote we have, is for our governments of choice, not what they choose to do with their entrusted power, not to mention their choice of leader.

A true democracy should hand more power to the people, cause after all, it's our taxes that governments are entrusted with.

As for a transaction tax, bring it on, let's at least give it a go. I would suggest a 0.5% TT for a period of say twelve months. What do we have to loose.

Off topic, but I agree with your net zero immigration, at least until we balance the books and provide decent care for our own.