People & associates
Alan Moran
Resource rent tax is absurd as its predecessor
The resource super-profits tax is buried, the minerals resource rent tax is terminally sick. Treasury's estimate that the MRRT would reduce the...
Less is more when it comes to election vows
With a State election pending, political parties will offer new spending promises and regulatory benefits to selected voter categories. But any...
Revenue grab creates little revenue
The Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT) comprised two aspects. One was its naked theft of decades of shareholder investment. The other was a tax...
Gillard's first clue on carbon stance a worry
Under its climate change proposals, Canberra proposed an energy tax, rising to more than $18 billion a year - $900 per person. Lower carbon dioxide...
No more frank and fearless
On Treasury's conservative estimates, the super profits tax on miners, as well as foreclosing new projects, is a grab on profits of existing...
Privatisation is not enough
State governments cannot seem to rein in spending so it matches their revenues. The upshot is skyrocketing debt levels. The NSW and Queensland...
States look beyond the power of one supplier
Fifteen years after Victoria privatised its electricity industry, New South Wales is dipping its toe into those same waters. But its focus is on...
Carbon tax dated
Canberra's decision to shelve its greenhouse tax, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), was a dramatic political backdown. Ironically,...
Ruddism doesn't add up
MALCOLM Fraser, now the darling of the left, has declared the Rudd Government to be worse than the 1972-75 Whitlam Government. Previously, even...
Rocks in their heads: ministers' miscalculation over resources tax leaves Labour in a hard place
According to the Metals Economics Group, global spending on exploration in 2009 totalled $US8.4 billion. Australia enjoyed 13 per cent of this...