“I’d encourage [Western Australian Premier Colin] Barnett to get on board and help ensure West Australians get a fair share of their resources through this taxation regime.”
Mr Barnett told the ABC earlier he believes there is likely to be a legal challenge to the new mining tax.
He says it appears the new tax taxes mineral resources – which under the constitution belong to the state – rather than company profits.
Meanwhile, the Federal Opposition has questioned the economic modelling of the Government’s redesigned tax, saying the figures do not add up.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he doubts the Government will be able to raise its forecasted revenue now that it has slashed the mining tax rate to 30 per cent.
He says the Government needs to explain the figures.
“What’s happened with the new tax is that the threshold is higher, the rate is lower, the incidence is much reduced and yet the new tax is supposed to raise 90 per cent of the revenue of the old tax,” he said.
Mr Abbott is calling on the Government to release all its economic modelling for the old and revised mining tax.
“I am not accusing the Government of cooking the books but there is something inherently fishy about these figures,” he said.
“The only way to clear it up is for all of the modelling to be released and I think that should be done urgently.”
Mr Swan has rebuffed suggestions the Government has overestimated the revenue the tax will generate.
“Tony Abbott now doesn’t think the Australian people should receive fair value for the resources they own 100 per cent,” he said.
“Resource prices have increased substantially and of course the Australian people are entitled to a fair share of that and Tony Abbott is saying they shouldn’t have it.”
How much?
Meanwhile, the Greens want the Federal Treasury to make public exactly how much the mining tax backdown will cost the Government’s bottom line.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says she fears severe budgetary repercussions.
“In the forward estimates, we’re looking at at least $25 billion over the next decade,” she said.
“We’ve written to Ken Henry … asking him to document exactly how much money is going to be taken out of the public purse now, because of this deal that was struck.”
Businesses are also being reassured it will be possible to fund increased superannuation contributions despite a smaller-than-expected cut in the company tax rate.
The Government had been promising to reduce the tax rate from 30 to 28 per cent, but will now only cut it to 29 per cent as a result of the mining tax deal.
Businesses say they will not be able to afford to pay the increase in super contributions from 9 to 12 per cent.
But the Institute of Superannuation Trustees head, Fiona Reynolds, says the higher contribution rate will be introduced gradually and will be funded through wage negotiations.
“The first increase is only a quarter of 1 per cent in 2012 and the rest comes in in very slow incremental increases up to 2019,” she said.
“These will be funded as we’ve seen in the past through wage negotiations.
First posted