When it comes to the proposed resource super profits tax, the Rudd government is once more failing to practise what it preaches.
The Australian government, the US, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are key supporters of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a Norway-based global standard established to promote minerals revenue transparency among emerging economies.
The initiative's website quotes from a UN survey of the top 10 criteria used to determine the viability of any mining investment. These include consistency of minerals policies, ability to predetermine tax liability and stability of a tax regime. You'd have to say the Rudd government misses out on all three.
Rudd may think he has the mining companies over a barrel because their Australian resource locations are immobile and they can't exploit an ore deposit here by mining in another country. But multi-nationals can exploit high-grade deposits in other countries with lower taxes and surmountable hurdles such as in transport and political instability.
Policymakers should query statements that are true but trite.
