The mining giants may baulk and carry on at the moment but at the end of the day they will suck it and absorb it. The extra costs and dangers of running mining operations in many other countries will still make Australia an attractive investment option.
If they do decide to leave our resources in the ground a little longer, then these resources will only become more valuable over time. The worlds resources are finite and as they diminish in volume those left behind become more valuable.
This super tax proposal is only part of a wider range of changes to the tax system, as recommended by the Henry Report, that is meant to reduce the tax burden on the rest of us.
Sorry Al I can not agree with your comments saying the Mining Giants will suck it up, Rio Tinto (who I worked for) have just pulled the plug on an 11.2 Billion Dollar upgrade of their Brockman 4 Mine in the Pilbara, as has Andrew Forest and another Queensland Billion Dollar company. I can tell you mate they will not just suck it and absorb it, they do not work like that.
I think we will all find that the mining giants are not pulling the pin on new projects due to the new tax but more so because of the financial crisis in Greece and Spain. It is thought by many economist to have the potential to cause a financial crisis worse than the last one! That is why the resources shares are losing value, not just in Australia, but world wide!
No GR12 sorry but not true, I havent even been out a year and I still communicate with many friends and work associates throughout mining. I can assure the financial crisis is over in mining, it just hasn't been a big as issue as when the down turn occured.
At Christmas time last year I was instructed to lay off 15 contract personnel as the global crisis was about to or was occuring, directly after Christmas in less than 2 weeks I was instructed to employ 16 contract employees and it has never ramped down. What people dont understand is that within the Pilbara we have the best crap (so to speak) Iron Ore in the world, we can combine that product with top grade Iron Ore from our other Pilbara deposits to come out with the best grade for export that is mixed with other Ore from around the word that in turn goes even further. In short, our ore is just about the highest demanded ore in the world.
The mining giants are not stupid, they are biding their time, but that time will never come if the 40% tax comes in.
But believe what you will, all I am trying to say is that I have jsut lived it for 25 years..
P.S we used to have a laugh at what the so called econimists were saying, because most of the time nothing they said happened.