Mining, energy sectors received $18B assistance over six years

Research by the Australia Institute shows state governments have spent nearly $18 billion supporting mining and energy companies over the past six years, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The research body has published a new paper called Mining the Age of Entitlement: State Government Assistance to the Minerals and Fossil Fuel Sector.

This is the first time anyone has attempted to put a dollar figure on the value of state government assistance to fossil fuel and mining companies across the country.

It shows the bulk of such assistance – via subsidies, concessions and cheap access to infrastructure – has occurred in Queensland and Western Australia.

Clive Palmer drops a huge $1B as influence peaks

Clive Palmer's wealth is set to tumble by a cool $1 billion, just as his political influence and power peaks, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Palmer has made his fortune in resources and will retain his billionaire status but his wealth, measured at $2.2 billion a year ago will be considerably smaller when the BRW Rich List is published on Friday.

Now describing himself as a full-time politician and a “retired businessman”, his Palmer United Party is set to effectively hold the balance of power in the Senate come July 1, having formed a loose alliance with a number of independent senators.

Resources boom ‘over-rated’, says RBA’s John Edwards

Reserve Bank of Australia board member John Edwards has challenged the influential view that Australia wasted the resources boom and faces economic hardship without a fresh 1980s-style reform push, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Instead, Edwards argues the influence of the boom on the economy was widely overstated and therefore less likely to hurt as it wanes – far less trigger a recession.

In a significant intervention into the national economic debate, the former chief economist to Paul Keating, and now non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, argues in a new book, Beyond the Boom, that the “fretful tone” dominating commentary about the future ignores underlying strengths.