Miners reject Gillard ‘rort’ claim
The resources industry has angrily rejected Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s description of the immediate deductions for exploration acquisitions as a “rort”, claiming tax changes will lower the takeover prices in mining deals, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Junior explorers hoping to get some cash in the door as a result of an exploration deal with a larger company are set to bear the brunt of the crackdown.
Gillard went on the offensive yesterday to sell the budget, including the measure to exclude mining rights and information from immediate deduction, which will raise an estimated $1.1 billion over four years.
Forecasts iron clad in reliance on mining
The Gillard government expects revenue from its mining tax to soar 250% by the end of next financial year, despite forecasts of lacklustre iron ore prices and weaker terms of trade, according to the Australian Financial Review.
It believes a flood of iron ore production and a plunge in the tax deductions claimed by mining companies will help save the budget from deficit by 2015-16.
The government’s revenue forecast is also buoyed by a crackdown on miners’ exploration tax breaks, saving it about $1.1 billion over four years.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Wednesday he was proud of the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) despite the new tax collecting $3.7 billion less than expected six months ago and declining terms of trade in the next four years.
Coal decision mine to make, says Macdonald
Former NSW Labor mining minister Ian Macdonald has told a corruption inquiry he had “total authority” to deal with the state’s coal exploration licences and there was nothing improper about giving one to a company chaired by former union boss John Maitland.
Macdonald gave evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday that he and Mr Maitland, a former national secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, were not political allies even though he had cited the union’s support in fighting for his Labor preselection for state Parliament in 2006.
“I never went out drinking with him, I never went to his home, I wouldn’t know where it was. I’ve never met his children. I had no social relationship with him whatsoever,” Macdonald said.
Maitland stepped down from the left-wing union in mid-2006. Mr Macdonald, a member of Labor’s Left faction, said the former union boss was a “stakeholder” with whom he had a “cordial relationship”
