PS: BHP, RIO & FMG have caused the price of IO to drop because of over production.
Despite the higher volumes that they are mining and selling, the WA & Commonwealth
Governments are recieving less revenue and the miners attitude seems to be ' I'm all right Jack".
There are a number of solutions ;
(a) Levy royalties on a per ton basis and not on price
(b) Impose an extra tax on them such as the GST to account
for the shortfall they caused by overproduction.
(c) Regulate production levels.
The WA Crown owns the IO and the benefits of this
is shared by all Australians in the form of allocations
of GST to the States which is adjusted to account for
WA's income from IO royalties. That's why WA has
only 30% of its GST returned while States like Tassy
get close to 130%.
This is what the who-haa was about 2 weeks ago.
Of course miners or those with shares in them will
naturally oppose this by calling their hip pockets.
But the nation's hip pocket should come first.
Joe Hockey looks rather foolish by whinging about
the revenue shortfall from IO when he has all the tools
to fix it on our behalf.
