Coalition to use Senate to force MRRT issue

The Coalition has obtained advice from the Senate clerk that Parliament can compel the commissioner of taxation to reveal how much money the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is generating, contradicting the government’s own advice that it could be illegal to disclose the figures to ministers, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Assistant Treasury spokesman Mathias Cormann will move a motion in Parliament next month that Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan detail the MRRT revenue raised so far.

Cormann received advice from the Senate clerk that Parliament, which is responsible for raising and spending, is entitled to scrutinise that revenue and it would be undemocratic if it didn’t.

Mali violence puts miners on alert

Australian companies working in Mali are continuing to monitor the worsening situation in the strife-torn west African nation after Islamist rebels began targeting foreign workers in the region, according to The Australian.

Rebels this week kidnapped 41 foreigners from an oil production facility in neighbouring Algeria in response to France's intervention in the Mali conflict.

Australia to fall out of top 20 economies by 2050

Australia is expected to drop out of the world’s 20 biggest economies by 2050 as fast-growing developing countries such as Argentina, Nigeria and Vietnam overtake it, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

China is projected take over the US as the world’s largest economy by 2017, with a gross domestic product in purchasing power parity terms of $US53,856 billion, the report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found.

By 2050, India is expected to be the world’s third-largest economy, behind the US.

Brazil would be ranked fourth, ahead of Japan.