Not to mentioned the jobs lost.

Paul Howes, Secretary of the AWU is responsible for launching a campaign against the big miners that amounts to a "class" war - the wealthy miners against the poor workers. And let's face it, it's a very emotional topic, human nature wants a big slice of the takings. This week he launched a series of ads aimed at the big miners for profiteering from the mining boom but not putting enough back into the community. Some people are disappointed in this, they saw him as a voice for the working class, someone who was able to articulate well on most subjects, but in this instance, he's gone for the jugular. But common sense tells me that punishing the rich boys won't ultimately profit the poor ones, it just doesn't work like that. This could possibly be the biggest mistake the Australian government has ever made.

Big mistake Toot2000 - we all want to be millionaires but not many of us make it - mind you I was all forthat idea mooted of selling Australia to the USA for 2 million per capita and still would - as we seem to slavishly follow that lead! Into battle anyway and should not! We would all have been millionaires that day and I wonder how many would blow it as they often do when winning lotteries.



But I diverse - silly campaign as many other rich men get big pay packets too just google the Banks CEO's starting off Macquarie if I remember correctly with millions in double figures and most of the retail CEO's are in the single millions plus the Telstra bloke - MexTex Sol got 13 million a year pay. All is far too much and the only bloke who ever said so was



dada.........Peter Costello - I liked him - not sure he would have made a good Pm but he was the best Treasurer we have ever had and they don't always make good PMs. Howard wasn't a good treasurer but he was a good Pm as listened and acted pl;us kept the lot together not easy.



Most of the supermarket CEO's are on 3-4 million salaries and that is without counting the perks and lerks these folk all get that many dont know abut.



School fees paid along with medical insurance - low or now interest home loans and so on on top of salary packages.



anyway this time around the Unions have shown up their bad side in being silly and thinking we are all are dumb bunnies and don't realize that Rudd's figures on their profits didn't take off the 80 billion they actually pay in tax as Company tax. Then they do all pay income tax - not as much as I want them to - but more under Howard/Costello who tightened the way they do their taxes and now have to pay pre tax and get it back or add to it when they used to pay very little and Labor had 14 years to do something about that. they knew that in the early 90's under Keating the middle and upper management gave themselves a whopping [b]60%[/b] pay rise.



I have to say I love Cameron in Britain and his we must cut the top 20% of the salaries of top public servants - heartening that to my ears as he also said no one should earn more than 22 times the minimum wage.



Here that would be $621,192 per annum on today's minimum wage - sound good to me!

Toot2000, you say that if the Chinese decide to cut back on their mining

investments we are in deep do do. I think that the overall investment from

all sources was $100Billion. As I understand it, $50B has been cancelled

& $50B has been shelved. We ARE in deep do do already.

Isn't it strange that the AWU is supposed to exist for the benefit of the

workers & Howes is in favour of a system that will see just under 180,000 of

the mining workers, earning around $150,000 P/A each, all out of work within

12 to 14 years.

It is quite possible that none of this will happen, because, the rumours flying

around China, at the moment, are that the Central Government is very close

to raising the interest rate by around 200 basic points, to combat inflation.

If this happens, you don't have to be real smart to work out what will happen

to construction & manufacturing in China. This would decimate the iron ore

contracts from Australia & South America. The funniest thing about this is that

it doesn't matter what Rudd says, he & his super tax will be blamed.

Interesting reading Val and Innes. I was just wondering what else we export and came up with these figures. As you can see, the miners are right up there but I was pleasantly surprised at the manufacturing exports figure - 32.5%. Gosh we are a lucky country, I just hope they don't stuff it up.



Agricultural exports accounted for 4.6 per cent of total exports in 2009, up from 3.9 per cent in 2008.

Mining exports accounted for 37.6 per cent of total exports in 2009, down from 39.3 per cent in 2008.

Manufacturing exports accounted for 32.5 per cent of total exports in 2009, down from 34.1 per cent in 2008.

Services exports (tourism) accounted for 21.3 per cent of total exports in 2009, up from 19.2 per cent in 2008.

Exports not specifically classified to the above industries account for the remaining 4 per cent.

I too am amazed at our manufacturing figures too200

Do you by any chance happen to know how this is made up?

It's amazing what you learn, we earned 21 million last year from food, beverages and tobacco, 16 million from Petroleum, coal, chemical and rubber products, 23 million from metal products and 20 million from machinery.

What a clever country we are.



See it all here



http://www.innovation.gov.au/Section/AboutDIISR/FactSheets/Pages/ManufacturingFactSheet.aspx

Ratings agency Moody's yesterday warned that the new 40 per cent tax rate on profits could reduce earnings for companies by nearly a third.



"Australia's mineral resources will stay put, but global producers such as BHP, with half its assets in Australia, and Xstrata, with a third, can decide whether to extract the minerals or shift some operations to lower-cost countries to avoid the higher tax regime," Moody's said.



In 2008 Zambia imposed a similar tax and the following year they repealed the tax when mining exploration in the country fell off.



Next week, shareholders meetings will be held across the country and I'd like to be a fly on the wall at one of them. This fight is going to be interesting - will it be 'up the workers' or 'up the miners'.

Extract from ABC's PM



The mining lobby has mounted a scare campaign about the resources tax that's undermined the Government's popularity. One mining executive has likened the tax to a part nationalisation of the industry. The Opposition claims it will kill the golden goose.



Dr Henry's message to his political masters - hold your nerve because if it accedes to the demands of the mining lobby it'll create a massive subsidy to mining companies and a massive opportunity for financial wheelers and dealers.

And the question for us is: As they do that and as they make a lot of money out of it, who are the people who are going to be paying that money to them? Is it going to be the Australian taxpayer or is it going to be somebody else?



And I think there's a very sound public policy case for making sure that this tax, however we tax resources, is designed in such a way that it's not the taxpayer who ends up being the mug who finances very large streams of income going to people who are capable of taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities in financial markets.



[url=http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2902970.htm?]Source[/url]

This is a hard one Fwed, there are excellent arguments for both sides but at the end of the day, I'm scared witless that our prosperity may go down the toilet. I don't think you can be so sure that they won't buzz off.

The big man, Clive Palmer, mining magnate and Queensland's richest man, is furious with the ad campaign against him. He said he has been forced to shelve two major mining projects in Western Australia and South Australia, that would each have created more than 3000 jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. Is he lying?

Just out of interest, BHP has lost $19 Billion in value since

the super tax was introduced. Brilliant economics!!!

Andrew Forrester has announced projects on hold over the tax.



Methinks no matter what Ken Henry says - and the government ignored most of his 20 million taxpayer dollar review of Tax and he is gagged on talking about it seemingly except of course allowed if favourable to the Rudd government seemingly. From the article Fwed posted on the ABC - a left wing taxpayer funded organisation which admitted its bias and promised to do something about it in 2007, and which like Rudd and his promises - hasn't yet happened - talk of doing is cheap to lefties who cant manage to put anything much into action.



These men has the money to invest in mining along with those people who invest in shares in their companies and risk it over mines that may or may not pay off. They do not have to invest it in Australia if the returns as less than they feel is able to be got by investing in another country.



This government is trying to start a class war by saying we own the mineral wealth - but we don't all pay out our own money and risk losing it to dig it out of the ground now do we? The miners do!



That is the crux of the matter.



Mining Companies pay income taxes on the company profits.the big bosses like all their workers pay income tax on their personal incomes.



BUT the people who get dividends often do not pay income tax on these as Paul Keating - Labor - said it was double dipping to have to pay income tax when the Company had already paid it on the profits.

Ignoring the fact all workers and retirees pay income tax on our incomes and then pay taxes like wholesale sales tax which was replaced with GST on our after tax incomes over and over again - which is double dipping too.



so if we are in need of tax income - try making the dividends from shares income tax payable if exceeding the free threshold.



Dont hit out biggest industry or we will all of us share in the downturn that will follow as they withdraw capital and go elsewhere - and the jobs lost will be thousands in other occupations that hang onto the shirt tails of miners.



Ken Henry is a rather strange man who wants also to cut down the Age pension to the dole money and says that they OAP's - like stay at home mums - live high on the hog under government rules and are favoured!



Tell me about that someone - as I don't see any favours being done for age pensioners nor stay at home mums - have i missed something?

Fortescue Metals Group says it is putting about $17.6 billion in new projects on hold because of the proposed new tax on mining profits.



Fortescue, a China-backed Australian iron ore producer that is the nation's third-largest exporter of the steel-making raw material, said it was putting its $10.5 billion Solomon Hub project and its $7 billion Western Hub development on hold.



"The uncertainty in the financial markets caused by the proposed tax and the cash impost that (the tax) payments will place on future business revenues has necessitated an urgent review of the economics surrounding the development of Fortescue's major projects," the firm said in a statement.



The news could increase pressure on the Government to back down over its proposed 40 per cent mining tax, which has sparked an outcry from miners who say it risks destroying investment, jobs and Australia's reputation as a safe place to do business.



Fortescue says its decision to place the projects on hold also means that around 30,000 jobs will also be placed on hold.



Fortescue shares, already down ahead of the news, fell further on the announcement. The stock was down 4.9 per cent at $3.86 by 11:54am (AEST) in a wider market that was off 1.5 per cent.



Industry experts warn Fortescue Metals Group's decision is a sign of things to come.



Investment adviser Tim Weir from Black Swan Equities says uncertainty in the financial markets has already had an impact on Fortescue's share price.



"It's had a significantly negative impact on their share prices as it has had on a lot of other companies, namely BHP and Rio, who are going to be exposed to this resource rent tax so I think this could be just the start of things to come."





Fortescue has done little work so far on the two shelved projects, but it described Solomon Hub as its flagship expansion development capable of producing 160 million tonnes a year of iron ore.