Another side to the Super tax on Mining
The ‘Supertax’ debate is an interesting one and as expected, both parties are heavily invested in their own outcomes. One thing the Mining Companies understand is that the tax will lower the size of their profits in boom times for the resources sector – they’ll still be raking in billions, its just that some of the cream will be removed. And one thing most mining companies anticipate for the near term future, is a return back to the really big BOOM times. That’s why they are fighting this idea so hard because if they thought things were going to turn poorly, they’d be urging the Government to act because they’d want the benefits of paying less tax in the not so good times (which they’re saying little about at the minute). The Government also seems to be fighting this idea with limited perspective –
threats of job losses by the Mining Industry is NOT the doom for the Australian economy they’d like us to believe – in fact it could well be the opposite. As we’ve already seen when the mining industry quickly shed its part time workforce in the thousands at the first hint of a possible global recession, what other industry sectors gained was raft of workers suddenly available to pick up the delays in projects. When the Mining sector dumped its part time workforce all of those construction workers, bricklayers, plumbers, truckdrivers and a whole heap of ‘real’ workforce labour became available elsewhere. People who’d been waiting for months to get a new pergola or garage built, new factory completed or repairs to the manufacturing machinery finally had the workers available to do so, as those skilled labour personnel were forced by the Mining sector workforce shedding, to return to their previous areas of skill.
And this is where the Government seems to be missing the point. Delaying Mining projects will turn out to be a very good thing elsewhere in the Australian economy. The influx of available carpenters and bricklayers will see a more competitive environment for construction and renovations. More truck drivers will speed the delivery of goods and services and so on lowering the pressure on wages in those sectors as more skilled personnel return. Quite simply, any delay by the Mining sector in starting projects will be welcomed by other industries who really could do with a boost in the number of skilled workers. Rather than worry or buy into the Miners Mythology, other industry sectors should be shouting loudly: ‘bring it on!’
You’d think that given a focus on the future, you’d ask specialists in the future to have some input, and whilst that didn’t occur for the PM’s Summit in Canberra over the weekend, some of Australia’s Futurists had already done the leg work to contribute their thoughts on the future of Australia. That report is…
Read More >Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten…
Read More >Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will meet with eminent ABC radio presenter Jon Faine on Wednesday the 16th of April to discuss the outcomes of the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra on the weekend With a focus on the future of Australia it would be only natural…
Read More >A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a…
Read More >As preparations continue for the Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘1000 heads’ ideas summit in Canberra in April, a group of Australia’s leading futurists are gathering in Melbourne this weekend for the ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’. The futurists attending the summit work across Australia, in corporate, not for profit and Government agencies in a variety of fields…
Read More >A few thoughts on what steps could be taken to overcome the ‘treat everyone like a nail’ approach that Interest Rate rises seems to do. Check out the idea under the ‘Latest Focus’ section Interest Rate Rises are going to penalise too many people who don’t deserve to lose their homes
Read More >Marcus Barber offers his thoughts on How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks and suggests that raiding boats won’t do the job. Instead he suggests that the key to negotiating with the Japanese is to have the Japanese people do the work. And to encourage them to do so we must begin to talk…
Read More >If an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ raised the profile of global warming to the general population, it appears that a willingness by political leaders to take appropriate action to mitigate the possible ramifications is still very much lacking. It is such a pity. No one who holds the Global Warming scenario close to heart wants to be…
Read More >Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will join Tim Cox on 774 ABC as part of the conversation hour next week Tim is filling in for Jon Faine whilst he takes a well deserved break and Marcus will join him for the conversation hour kicking off at 11am on Thursday the 13th of December, where they’ll discuss…
Read More >At the AustForesight 2007 Conference, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber and fellow Futurist Steve Tighe presented their take on what is required to enable futurists to be seen as more relevant to the Corporate world. Drawing on their shared experience as facilitator and client, they detailed the journey of foresight and futures across the past 50…
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