Australian bureaucrats make super profits or what else can you call what they get for either doing nothing or helping other bureaucrats doing nothing. Teachers get a lot of pay for dumbing down our bright youngsters. Their super payouts border on super profit.

Pelican we have been dropping the top tax rates for years. At the same time we have been giving large handouts to the bottom end. Hawke & Keating were at it & did much of it. The poor middle lot, from a miserable $30 to $50 thousand have been picking up the load for everyone.

I would agree we went too far, with both top end wages & company tax, but can't you still hear Keating calling for lower company tax to attract investment.

I don't think there is any doubt we have far too many eggs in the mining basket. Country towns in mining areas are not prospering, they are being killed off quite quickly.

Please stop worrying about the Reef it is in no danger from us. If you add all the silt dredged in all Queensland harbours since settlement, to all the dirt moved in mining, it would not come near the silt that flows daily from the Fitzroy when it is in flood. It really is that little.

Add the Burdekin, the Burnett, the Mary & a few others, & you should see the picture.

If you are still worried you need to understand that for coral, the most deadly thing coming from land is fresh water. Coral can't survive in it.

To understand this look at a map of QLD, & the reef. Check the distance off shore of the coral, from 5 to 50 nautical miles, then look at the outfall of the rivers. You can see how the width of the coastal lagoon is matched by the amount of fresh water discharge from the nearby rivers. They have made room for our harbours.

This is complicated by the east coast current, & tides that can flood either northward or southward in areas just a few miles apart, but the picture is there.

The effect is even obvious in some mid ocean atoll lagoons. Heavy wet season rains can reduce the salinity of the water in the lagoon sufficiently to inhibit coral growth, while that on the outer face continues to flourish.

Here is my example of a super profit.

Just a few short years ago, Gold was around $400 an ounce. The miners whom pay the same royalties they always have, are now getting around $1800 an ounce.

Those "extra" super profits", supplied by the market, are not being shared with the Australian people regardless of which State the miners dig it up from Rehctub. Despite the fact that the actual mineral wealth belongs to all Australians regardless of which State the resource is located.

A smart business operator would, (as the source) of the commodity, be in error too not share in the increasing profits generated by his/her product, wouldn't they Rehctub.

*it is about sharing some of the largesse along the chain of production. Afterall taxpayers are footing the bill for infrastructure*

Pelican, I think you will find that BHP is by far Australia's
largest taxpayer, so aware of it or not, you benefit from their
largesse, its some of that money peed up against walls by Canberra.

As for infrastructure, BHP build their own ports and railways in the
NW. One of the big costs for Olympic Dam, is their own desalination
and pipeline for water. Most of these companies generate their
own power too. Perhaps the Federal Govt could start by building
a proper road in the NW. They cash in all the fuel taxes after all.
Now they are going to cash in on all the revenue from offshore gas too.

Rehctub, royalties on things like gold and iron ore already work
on a % basis in WA.

If you guys really want corportions to pay more tax, what about
honing in on companies like Google, who can transfer price most of
it out of Australia quite legally. Is our tax office fast asleep?

As to gold, what the miners tend to do is when the price of gold is
low, they only mine the richest ore bodies or even stop mining in
some mines. If the price of gold is high, they will focus on low
yielding orebodies which they would not bother about otherwise.
That extends the life of a mine dramatically. At 400$ an ounce,
a great many gold mines would simply close down, as they would
be losing money.

T2, the simple answer is royalties. Not a big new tax, just the tax that already exists, royalties.

Picture this, a multi million dollar advertising camp to sell the mining tax, or, a minimal cost to increase royalties.

Which one do you think makes more sence?

By all means share it around with the states, I don't care, just stop expecting the miners to pay additional taxes when times are good.

Digging something out of the ground at a total cost of $20 per ton and then on-selling it for around $280 tone is a pretty good profit, especially when there is negligible tax paid on that profit and much of the associated infrastructure (roads and rail) is paid for and maintained by those that actually do pay tax - is a pretty good deal and what I would consider somewhat excessive.

The tax rates paid have been essentially unchanged for many years and are based on a time when there much smaller profits.

That fact that such an industry nationally contributes only around 1% of jobs and less than 10% of the GDP is just a bonus (for them).