Antinuclear

Tony Abbott “misspoke” on Olympic Dam, revealing Liberals’ confusion about carbon pricing

Abbott having it both ways on BHP (includes video) August 23, 2012 Phillip Coorey Sydney Morning Herald   It was eminently predictable the opposition was going to blame the decision to shelve the Olympic Dam expansion on the mining tax and the carbon price…..

When BHP announced the Olympic Dam decision yesterday, Kloppers’ statement cited ‘‘current market conditions, including subdued commodity prices and higher capital costs’’.
Minutes later, Tony Abbott, flanked by 10 South Australian Liberal MPs and senators, declared it was a catastrophic day for South Australia and blamed the mining tax and carbon taxes….

He kept at it on the 7.30 Report last night during an interview in which he said he had not read BHP’s statement issued hours earlier. Today he said he had misanswered the question and had read the statement…..
The Coalition is trying to have it both ways on the mining tax. It has been saying for months that the big miners, BHP included, have told it privately that they swindled the government during negotiations and will pay little or no tax for many years.
At the same time, the Coalition says the tax is killing such projects as Olympic Dam.
The mining tax did not apply to Olympic Dam because it only applies to iron ore and coal. There is a strong but unsubstantiated rumour in the industry that when the minerals giants renegotiated the mining tax with the government after Kevin Rudd was dumped, exempting uranium, gold and copper was a condition of Olympic Dam going ahead.

Either way, BHP cited neither the mining tax nor the carbon tax in its statement, and afterwards Kloppers told journalists the mining tax – which BHP will supposedly pay on its iron ore and coal projects – was not a factor.
‘‘As you know the tax environment for this particular project has not changed at all since we started working on it six or seven years ago,’’ he said.
‘‘The MRRT only covers coal and iron ore – not copper, not gold and not uranium – so the tax situation for this project has not changed. What has changed is the capital cost of construction. What has changed also is that post-Fukushima there is a different and still developing outlook on uranium..

.. Regardless of what BHP says, the opposition will continue to blame the carbon and mining taxes.
…: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbott-having-it-both-ways-on-bhp-20120823-24nle.html#ixzz24V97BzJ2

August 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics