Australia Assures Mining Firms, Opposition: All Demands would be Met
The Australian government has assured mining companies and opposing sectors their demands will be met in the final version of the proposed mining tax bill.
After deliberations in Parliament, the Labor Party won over key independent MPs to its minerals resource rent tax on Monday, but disappointed the Greens with concessions that deducted some $300 million from the estimated $11.1 billion tax take for the government.
Labor needs the support of the Greens for its final Senate push and to eventually be cleared in Parliament.
The minority Greens were quite unhappy with the concessions given by the governing Labor Party to one of the independent MPs, Andrew Wilkie.
Wilkie was able to make concession lifting the profit threshold at which the tax cuts in from $50 million to $75 million and eventually $125 million.
Green leader Bob Brown says it is not socially acceptable for miners to have won back $20 million a year that would have gone to the Australian people.
"They need to find that $20 million," Brown told reporters. "The government should look at current concessions the mining sector receives including fuel rebates and research and development funding."
The Green Party wants a revenue neutral solution. While the federal government said it can work out the scaled down revenue and will make provisions in the next budget review, according to Finance Minister Penny Wong.