Mining tax provides more antics from cross benches.

The cost of having a Gillard government was exacerbated by the various demands from the independents who backed her into power. Since then we have witnessed an ever increasing bill for their obsessions such as the poker machine legislation, wanted by one man, but imposed on all of us by a federal power, powerless to say no.

Now Windsor and Oakeshott are demanding another $400 million a year to establish another layer of ‘environmental protection’ for risk assessments of catchment water resources as a precondition to the granting of mining licenses. This is on top of the cost of existing environmental regulations:


It is quite conceivable that many of the environmental concerns of landholders would dissipate to some extent if they had the right to veto extraction activities on their land and were allowed to share in the profits of those activities if they chose to allow it. This is not a suggestion that farmers are not environmentally conscious, they have to be as they rely heavily on a healthy environment to make their living.

Farmers are aware that arguments on the basis of property rights and fair compensation carry little weight in today’s Australia, and the only chance they have to obtain any leverage is through environmental activism. This has come back to bite them in Queensland, where they successfully campaigned for the protection of ‘strategic cropping land’ only to find that much of the legislation is designed to protect their land from farmers.

In 2009 when the Traveston Crossing Dam was blocked to protect fish and Turtles, this site said:

“It is shocking though that the enormous economic costs, social disruption, waste of resources, incredible stupidity of the concept, and the crushing psychological burden to the victims of this outrage, counted for nothing. Right up to the announcement of the decision the Premier was waging psychological warfare on landholders attempting to force them to sell.”

Rev Ian Watt, one of the campaigners replied stating:

You certainly have understood the violations to the people of the Mary river. As one who has been in this fight from day one to victory I hope you realise that it was not that we valued the endangered species more than people, but we discovered that this government did not care about the human cost and only by pitching to save the animals would we save them and us! This indeed is an abominable reality to discover – reprehensible

Windsor is also pressing the government to legislate for federal right to veto state mining projects. There already way too much regulation over all development in this country. Gina Reinhart pointed out to the business conference attached to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting the red tape and taxation burden that is retarding the growth of her business. The development process for the "$7.2 billion Roy Hill mine project will require 3,104 permits and approvals for the mine, railway and port developments.”

Windsor and the other independents are looking more and more like the old guy in a hat driving a dual carriage way in an old car at 30 kilometers per hour below the speed limit who seems to have pride in the fact he is holding up a long line of traffic.

It would be a great thing for this tax to be blocked; it is an additional burden placed on mining after the depredations of the carbon tax. Windsor and his mates should put the kibosh on it once and for all, rather than add new anti development clauses to screw the industry.