Hi Paul1405,
I was under the impression that long term fixed price energy contracts were abandoned in favour of spot prices
- Though I'm not certain.

In any case Merry Christmas everyone.
I hope you all have an enjoyable day.

You too AC.

Enjoy your day.

Take care.

Paul,

"The report shows that in the last decade (between 2011-12 and 2020-21), the mining industry contributed $254 billion in company taxes and royalties ($142 billion and $112 billion respectively)" And this does not include the Paye from employees and GST which nearly doubles this.

This is a huge chunk of revenue that cannot be replaced. This is nearly $1bn a week, for which a river of gold is more than an apt description.

AC and SM,

I'm not saying Australia does not receive revenue from resources ,we do. However, I'm saying we haven't always negotiated the best possible deal for ourselves, that's been well publicised over the years, and data from other countries shows that to be the case. I'm not simply blaming the conservative side of politics, Labor has been guilty as well. The gas deals of Howard in 2002 were outrageous, they were negotiated at a very low price, but Howard justified it as "its a long term contract, 25 years". The big resource companies of the world, see Australia as a "very good investment", politically stable and a reliable supplier. Take iron ore for example, during Covid Australia continued to supply, Brazil our largest competitor went pear-shaped, and still have not fully recovered. Our best comparison is Canada, which consistently does better than us in the export market for commodities. The reason may be that we are more heavily reliant on commodities, whereas Canada has a stronger manufacturing sector, therefore we have more at stake when negotiating. I don't know, maybe our politicians and bureaucrats are an easier push-over than the Canadians.

Interesting, In a 'USNEWS' subjective piece on 'Safest Countries' Australia rates 10th, Canada 7th, Brazil 51st. Norway rated #1, with USA at 21st, slipped with Trumpism. Not surprisingly US is the best trade deal negotiator, given they have a 'big stick' they can use when needed.

Well I have just read all the posts on this thread.
A lot of noise and some good suggestions in my opinion.
However there is a real test of whether the government is REALLY STUPID
next April.
The owners of Liddel will close that power station.
If the government does not offer $1 for the plant or nationalise it
then they will really be stupid.
The company has to clean up the site wen closing the plant.
A friend who worked in that plant for a number of years said if the
maintenance had not been run down because of the coming closure it
could have been kept running for another fifty years.
Similar electrical equipment has been running for over 100 years.
If either 1.5 or 2 Gigawatt, not sure which, is blown up to the cheers
of the greens etc, as for other shutdowns, then the government will
prove that they are REALLY STUPID !