In Australia the states have the responsibility for the lions share of education, health, age care, policing, and infrastructure with no access to income or company tax. The costs of the services are increasing faster than the income, and mining royalties are a major source of income.

If Juliar wants the states to get rid of the royalties, she needs to replace the income with something else.

Both the RSPT and the MRRT were a cynical grab by an impecunious Federal Government, on the back of reduced income and prolifigate spending, to put money back into the coffers; wrapped in the populist flag of "the minerals belong to all Australians".

The tax was designed by Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and Martin Ferguson, without input from Treasury, and agreed to with Rio, XStrata and BHP. An agreement supposes that all parties are happy with the outcome at that time. It seems they thought they were Brainiacs instead of politicians- when the reverse was true.

Gambling taxes may be forever, but they still form part of the income of those states, so should be included before carve up.

It is the states that provide most of the infrastructure for startup mines, not the federal government. They merely want to ride the "gravy train".

Lee 1

Here, here

lee1 - Are these the same incompetents that thought giving Malaysia 800 refugees and getting 4,000 back PLUS we have to pay ALL the costs of supporting the 800 + the 4,000 was a GOOD NEGOTIATED DEAL.

The current mob in government wasted, threw away, gave away all the tax money and the miners tax was devised to raise more money so they could continue their spend thrift ways.

They chose to tax a group that would have the least electoral impact on them and so far it has backfired on them, with little raised because of a drop in mineral prices.

Just another bungle by the current mob which has to be added to the other 50 or so stuff ups.

Luciferase, there were changes avaiable, it was called no new tax, just increase or better charge for EXISTING royalties.

How they are distributed is another topic.

Shadow minister, QLD is a prime example, as while we do have plenty of resources, we also have a huge diverse state, with infrastructure per capita much higher than most other states, especially those with their hands out.

But the big issue is, given this incompetent mob have either spent, or allocated the two billion dollars they thought they would get, where will these funds now come from.

Remember, our borders, although not in the spot light, are still being breached with no real solution in sight.