The States would then compete with each other to attract economic development and activity. Extremist Green Governments like Tasmania would never survive as their population would be reduced to subsistence living within a very short time as they would not be able to mooch of the rest of the country. The States with the lest taxation and regulation and in which it was easiest to do business becoming the wealthiest.

Could also be a Green perp on another matter….. a perfect doctrinal fit.

FTFY, Bruce…. and wilful misrepresentation IS what Gheyboi does.

It seems individual TFNs are subject to hacking and fraudulent lodgements of returns.

For example, our son lodged his 2010-11 return promptly, and some months later was informed by the ATO that another return with the same TFN had been lodged by another identity. It was cleared up after a face-to-face interview, with requisite proof of identity, and he received his refund and a new TFN. He heard nothing further from the ATO.

At the end of the 2011-12 FY he lodged his return as usual, using his new TFN, expecting a quick refund. After repeated phone inquiries to the ATO in Qld he was assured each time that his return had been processed and the refund would be in his account within 14 days.

Six months down the track, his tax agent has gotten into the act this week, discovered after several hours of inquiries to the ATO, that his new TFN has been stolen after a hack of his current employer’s personnel files.

Our son isn’t an ingenue. He’s a skilled worker in mining logistics and has been in the tax system for 12 years. His current employer is a national logistics company, and he’s not the only one affected by the hacking.

These things aren’t supposed to happen in the “secure” Australian tax system, let alone twice in two years with two different TFNs. He had another face-to-face with the ATO today, and now has another TFN, but the ATO still won’t say who stole his numbers on either occasion, or for what purpose they were used, which makes him wonder if he’s going to be under some flag when he files future tax returns, and if there might be some difficulties ahead.

Weren’t these numbers supposed to be secure and permanent? It seems the ATO is unable to back that promise, just as it’s unable to back a coherent taxation system for the nation.

You would have to be deaf not to have heard the Greens jumping up and down about taxing the gold miners. Soak the rich! Anyone who mines gold has to be rich by definition in the Green universe.

There are some relatively small coal companies hit, in addition to BHP, Rio and Xstrata, and yes they have been squawking. All the revenue went to the States. Why would Swannie put a press release out about this when all it would do is draw attention to his ineptitude? So you probably wouldn’t have heard very much in the MSM.

Grey Gheyboi – You are willfully misrepresenting the situation.

FTFY, Bruce…. and wilful misrepresentation of what Gheyboi does.

The Greens would never agree to changes without raping every other mining company and every other metal or mineral industry.

However if what you say is true then every other mining company is being raped anyway, because these royalty increases apply across the board and not to the big miners.
If the royalty increases completely offset what the miners projected during the negotiation period would be paid to the Federal government (and I have seen no modelling that supports that claim), then the entire sector is paying it.

Gillard agreed to an altered MRRT where State royalties would be recompensed without apparent limit. She did this because a major publicity campaign was about to land on her at a critical point in the election campaign.

Once the legislation went through there was no altering it in the minority government. The Greens would never agree to changes without raping every other mining company and every other metal or mineral industry. So it stuck.

Revenue poor States did as Keating knew instinctively*, they then immediately raised State royalties, which sucked up the tax which would have gone to the Feds.

So mining companies who are liable ARE paying the money…to the States. It is only Swannie and Gillard who are incompetent in this equation. Only they could design such a stupid policy.

* “Never stand between a premier and a bucket of money” – P.J. Keating