OK I will bite..
If I went to China to start manufacturing DEF or XYZ, I would have to take on a local partner and % of ownership profits etc etc (and in the process forfeit all my IP).
Basically you want in China, it is under their terms.
You want in Australia - U have $ U dictate the terms[}:)] So what is wrong with our system having the balls to stand up for local input too
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An example... You want to mine / or invest here in zero to low IP, zero to low value-add activities, then all the infra-structure product must be sourced locally unless it can be proven it is not possible due to local inability to provide the product. So need steel - buy from local mill. Need car buy from locally made product -investment to include value adding infra-structure locally where practical - etc etc. Foreign ownership maximums - Way way more socialist than I naturally am, but bleeding this country by 1000 cuts requires a Blunt but effective response.
Do I give a drop kick if a foreign owned company has to pay carbon tax - not at all - help us to improve our own abilities to handle the stuff - bring it on - double the rate for special cases (coal mining).
Establishing a good level of mining Tax not a chance - With an average of 80% ownership of mining stock O/Seas and massive cash profits at stake, combined with local political wonder kids with the only aim being to get into power at all costs then moral fibre for the longer term future is not part of the agenda.
If Rudd had tried the mining tax in his first 3 months of office with the majority they had, probably could have pulled it off but not now.
We have effectively modeled our mining rights on 3rd world standards. The modern equivalent of a colonial power is a cashed up corporation who can rely on the laws of the land they operate in to remove the need to invade and set up a colony = Australia.
To me the massive mining operations are logistics - period not complex either. Compare mining to say running Australia post which is logistically complex. There is no IP (it is all tried and tested), there is some value add (but only through necessity) i.e LPG, Iron, gold, - ore extraction, but coal it is just dig and truck.
We provide an educated, stable healthy work force, stable effective living standards, good resource supply lines, good infra-structure, stable government, bend over plastic mining laws, a third estate up for a bias slant, and low taxation on a bang for buck basis. Compare that to a third world country, it is favourable (except bribery is likely cheaper).
The results for Australia are a growing divide between the primary wealth generating industries / businesses and those associated with mining. In a big economy the % of one industry on GDP are relatively low. In the Australian economy, the impact of mining in all its forms is fairly large. This has distorted the economic model we rely on and is damaging a lot of non-mining industries through, labour cost, strength of the dollar, etc.
Subtract mining in all its forms from our GDP and where would Australia be in the OECD tables, not in the bottom division like Greece but likely in the next division up.
So use the advantage the mining offers us to add value to our brand and not de-value it - certainly not add it to the current account and dribble it all away. That is a topic for another thread..
Why did I bite? Late night drudge computing
- Formatting HDD's for a Server B4 zzz's , tomorrow we have a power outage for most the day.
AP
We got some goodens back the other way though
