Resource Rent Tax deal finalised

[Jovial Monk]

Forgot the walking dead: Ruddock will still be in Parliament, think his is the safest Lib seat?

Can the Libs come back? Hope so, a government needs a strong Opposition to keep it accountable and non-complacent. But they will need to reform the party: Jensen has twice now been passed over by the local branch only to see the Lib Council overrule the local branch and preselect Jensen instead of the locally preferred candidate.

[IQSRLOW]

Meanwhile two of the most important portfolios go unattended before an election with Fawkner and Tanner deciding to go walkabout

[Jovial Monk]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 5883029744

Mal Brough reckons:

FORMER Howard Government minister Mal Brough has launched a stinging attack on an erstwhile colleague and has called for others to retire.

Mr Brough labelled Fisher MP Peter Slipper as someone for whom he holds no respect.

He also called for older federal Liberal members, including Member for Fairfax MP Alex Somlyay, to stand aside, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports.

Of course Mal got a bigger than average swing in his seat, deservedly so, so he is one not worthy of his own respect? Complicated

[IQSRLOW]

Meanwhile two of the most important portfolios go unattended before an election with Fawkner and Tanner deciding to go walkabout

[IQSRLOW]

Govt backflips, cooks the books then tells treasury to keep it on the down-low

What an open and transparent Liebor govt! I guess there must be some bad shit in there that points to their fudging the figures based on higher commodity prices and extraction rates to try and make their backflip look less backflippy

Henry stays silent on mining tax details
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry has withstood a barrage of questioning from Opposition Senators on the Federal Government's projections for its $10 billion Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT).

Dr Henry refused to answer a series of questions in the Senate inquiry, saying Treasurer Wayne Swan will release the information soon.

WA Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann wants to know where the Government expects to get its projected $10.5 billion in revenue: which commodities will be affected, what are the assumed prices and export volumes, the exchange rate and how much Western Australia will contribute via royalties.

The revenue projections have increasingly been questioned by the Opposition as well as West Australian Treasury officials and mining companies.

Dr Henry was given the questions on notice but turned up at today's hearing without any answers.

"I am able to say to the committee that it is my understanding that the Treasurer will shortly be putting more information into the public domain," he said.

Senator Cormann asked why if the Treasurer was going to release the information, couldn't Dr Henry provide it to the committee, to which Dr Henry replied:

"Well of course I'm very happy to ask the Treasurer whether he would be comfortable with me publishing the information today in this committee or whether he would prefer himself to publish the information," he said.

The inquiry took a five minute break for Dr Henry to seek instructions.

"I haven't spoken directly to the Treasurer myself but I have spoken with his staff and I can report that it is the Treasurer's intention to publish the information imminently," Dr Henry said.

"I can confirm that the information, the publication if you like, is still in draft form, it has not yet been finalised and I can also report that as I indicated earlier the Treasurer would be publishing the information."

[IQSRLOW]

Yep- talk about cooking the books

How can you trust anything these guys do? What will happen when the commodity prices drop as they surely will?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politic ... 5891697261

RISING commodity prices have made up for massive revenue losses in concessions to big miners to solve the resources tax impasse.

Treasurer Wayne Swan conceded today that without forecast improvements in commodity prices, the government's new minerals resource rent tax would have raised just $4.5 billion.

This was less than half the $12 billion forecast under the proposed resource super-profits tax, which was watered down and its name changed following bitter opposition from the mining sector.

Mr Swan also said under the higher commodity price forecasts, the old RSPT could have raised about $24 billion.

[Ned Kelly]

Well this Post will not make the purists happy, but I reckon it is so, so relevant. The funeral of mining magnate Ken Talbot was held today, and Wayne Bennett spoke there. It seems he was 'between jobs' and said so to Talbot, who, according to Bennett then offered to 'buy' him an NRL Club.

Gross.