by Dr Cameron Murray Summary 1. Successful reforms of oil and gas resource taxation that reclaim the public’s rightful share of resource rents will be vigorously contested with extensive lobbying and campaigning. The oil and gas industry is also likely to challenge...
BLOG: resource rents
Redirecting Royalties to the Rural Rump – The Nationals go vote-harvesting
The Western Australian election 11 March will be a furious battle, but don’t bother with the popcorn – the ALP led by Mark McGowan is set to win easily and the fireworks of One Nation will prove a damp squib. Facing certain defeat, the Liberal–National Coalition are...
It is still land, even underwater.
The High Court of Australia has affirmed the right of a west Tasmanian council to levy rates on the seabed. It is still land, even underwater. Council saw the land under eight marine farming leases as ‘rateable land’, Tasmania’s Valuer General declined to value them...
Peter Costello’s indefensible legacy
On Friday, Peter Costello used Fairfax to tell us how handsome he is and how splendidly the Future Fund he chairs is performing. He was responding to fellow establishment figure Howard Mitchell's comparing its returns against the Alaska Permanent Fund. The whole...
Find me a true prophet!
The Barnett government in WA is advertising for someone to forecast what its tax and royalty revenues will be. Earlier official predictions, notably on iron ore royalty revenue, have proven wildly inaccurate. The advertisement specifically calls for macro-economic and...
WA budget wins Golden Banana Award
West Australia's Barnett government has just handed down its budget. It is the ugliest baby I have ever seen. The AFR reports: All key financial measures have been blown apart in the state budget, with net debt (above $30 billion) cash deficits (above $5 billion) and...
Economic rents must become part of the public discourse
An economics professor planned to live without acknowledging land.
He would have succeeded but found that he needed food, clothing and somewhere to stand.
Australia’s newest taxpayer
Linc Energy today announced a major shale oil and gas discovery around Coober Pedy in South Australia. Unrisked prospective reserves have been separately estimated by two independent consultancies at 103 and 233 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That is an...
Welfare offers rich pickings for the wealthy
“The greatest source of redistribution to the rich occurs through the land market, which is usually the largest tangible market in modern economies.”
Citizens are entitled to RSPT
PM Gillard’s defiant speech to the Minerals Council of Australia yesterday – asserting national ownership of our mineral wealth and the country’s right to a share of the bounty being dug up and shipped out – was good politics, good economics and a much needed...