Treasury Secretary martin Parkinson said yesterday the budget was getting little benefit from the mining boom. Miners are delivering about 1/5th of all company profits but they are only paying 1/10th of company tax because of the large deductions they can claim for investment.
(Then there are all the profits sent back overseas).
Tax-to-GDP ratio has fallen by 4% since the Global Financial Crisis and is not expected to recover to its pre-GFC levels for many years. Years of spending restraint will be needed by both federal and state governments.
The mining industry is not a big employer. The Great Barrier Reef for example provides jobs for about 60000 people and is under threat from coal exports through Great Barrier Reef ports. Rio Tinto is in the process of robotizing operations (big trucks blasting) which will remove many mining positions.
Coal mining is also in the news because the UN and Greenpeace are ‘after it’ – for potential damage to the Great Barrier Reef and because they calculate that the coal being exported from Gladstone Harbour represents enough Greenhouse Gas emissions to raise the Earth’s temperature well past 2degrees. They say this affects the whole world.
Where would we be without mines? Where are we with them?