Ludwig, the other side of the coin.

36 years ago, I spent a bit of time in Bougainville. I met a bloke who was personal manager for the mine there. He told me of the problems getting good staff to go there.

When I ran into him about 10 years later he was human relations manager, [personal officer with a grand title], Of Cap Coal, a mine out from Kingaroy, & we became mates. When I reckoned they paid their people too much money, he disagreed. He believed that to get top people to live & work in bloody awful places, "the ass ole of the world he reckoned" they had to pay top dollar.

At one stage he told me he had head hunted a grader driver from Dampier WA, because he needed one who could & would do a top job of finishing the work on rehabilitation of finished areas.He told me that good grader drivers were born, not trained, can you believe that?

He also told me he was very happy that they had a long term contract to supply all their coal to a government power houses, as Japan had forced the price of coal down to below the cost of production, & most were loosing big money. He expected about a 25% closure of existing mines. He was right.

If only we had a government who could temper their spending urge, perhaps we could slow the boom a little, spreading it over a longer period.

Many years a mate of mine, in the coal industry spent some years in the UK. He could see that the only thing keeping the UK afloat, was North Sea Oil. Their madly spending governments were frittering away all they could rip out of that industry. A quick glance at the UK today proves him right.

I really don't want to see our madly spending government do the same. All they do is generate even more expectation of handouts, which are not sustainable after the boom subsides. I'd rather see it go to those who work in the industries.

<< He believed that to get top people to live & work in bloody awful places … they had to pay top dollar. >>

Agreed Hasbeen. But you’ve got to admit, there is a huge discrepancy between the wages of even the ‘lowliest labourers in the mines and many highly skilled and experienced people outside of the mining arena.

I was a professional botanist and ecologist at a reasonably high rank before I quit last year. Many years’ experience and knowledge won me that position. But I was not on anything like the income of the most basic mine labourer!

In fact, I constantly thought about going and working in the mines instead, as I did 30 years ago, and indeed still do now that I’m getting close to ‘unretiring’ and re-entering the workforce.

Maybe miner workers get what they deserve to work in isolated places. Afterall, it is hard to imagine that their companies would pay them more than they need to. Or maybe there is considerable scope for wage adjustment.

<< If only we had a government who could temper their spending urge, perhaps we could slow the boom a little, spreading it over a longer period. >>

Yes but it is not the government’s great urge to spend money that is the problem in the first instance, it is enormous number of things that need money to be spent on them, generated first and foremost by (here we go again) record high immigration!

Net zero immigration, then after a while, a slow-down in government spending and a pull-back on the scale of mining. That’s what we need. We need to draw the boom out…..and (for the fifty thousandth time) use this wealth to steer us directly towards a sustainable society!

So let’s not attack the government for their spending regime but rather; attack them for creating the ongoing demand that necessitates this scale of spending.

and the wage of top union officials who do what? and who pays for them?

Miners are paying comparatively less tax now than they did when Fraser opened the doors and let them in to help themselves to what are really our national resources.

We are seen as among the best value-for-money mining opportunities in the world despite their whining. Mining has around 28% profit margin compared to 8% for everybody else. That's profit - after costs are removed.

Unfortunately these resources won't grow back and when they are gone, they are gone forever and all we'll have left are holes in the ground.

Mines are about 83% foreign owned and the last attempt to nationalise those resources for the long-term was made by Rex Connor during the Whitlam years and like the previously democratic governments of Iran, Iraq, Chile and Argentina who tried the same thing, that government was removed.

Since nationalising them is off the agenda, then creating some sort of long-term national benefit from the proceeds is the next best option.

Remember that it's our taxes that pay for the roads, railways, electricity and ports that they use so as well as giving them a cheap deal, we also subsidise them in other ways.

If they don't like it they can go elsewhere. I'm sure that local miners would be happy to take those leases back out of foreign hands.

Some statistics -

For every dollar of iron ore sales that was exported from Australia over 2011:

1. The balance of trade rose by a dollar.
2. Australian workers and contractors received 12 cents in wages and salaries
3. 19 cents was spent in royalties, equipment and others costs
4. The government received 11 cents in company tax
5. Australian owners made 12 cents in profit
6. Foreign owners made 40 cents in profit.

Now tell me again, who is being ripped off here?

Rache, Wobbles

Cherry picking figures are we? Quoting direct from the greens pamphlet?

I see no allowance for cost of capital, and you forget to mention that these foreign owned companies own many mining operations overseas, from which Australian owners get profits. For starters.

The rest of these figures are also suspect.