Australia’s upper house yesterday agreed to scrap a contested resources profits tax after the government struck a surprise deal with crossbench senators, including mining billionaire Clive Palmer.
The Minerals Resource Rent Tax was introduced by the previous Labor administration in 2012, with a levy on annual profits above A$75 million (US$70 million) on iron ore and coal at a rate of 30 percent.
It was intended to return a share of the spoils of Australia’s decade-long mining boom to government coffers but was widely criticized after its revenues fell dramatically short of forecasts.
Photo: AFP
“The mining tax is now gone,” Treasurer Joe Hockey told parliament after the Senate voted 36 to 33 for its repeal, a key election promise of the Coalition, led by Prime Minister Tony Abbott. “We said we’d get rid of the mining tax; we’ve delivered in full.”
Scrapping the tax was made possible after the government did a deal with minor parties led by the Palmer United Party, whose powerbroker leader is a coal magnate.
Palmer always wanted the tax gone, but said he would not support a repeal unless crucial initiatives to assist families — which were threatened by budget cuts — were left unchanged. A compromise was reached.
Greens party leader Christine Milne said the deal was a win for the big miners and for the flamboyant Palmer, who last month issued an apology after outraging Beijing by calling China’s leaders “mongrels” who “shoot their own people.”
“If ever there is a conflict of interest, it is this one,” she told the Senate. “How is it possible that you can have a coal billionaire voting to vote down a mining tax?”
Palmer insisted the move made no difference to his coal mining interests in Queensland, saying he was “retired” and was no longer chairman of any company.
“We all pay tax. Does that mean that members of parliament don’t vote on income tax bills?” he said.
Dumping the tax was a major win for Abbott. It follows his victory in July when he succeeded in abolishing a divisive carbon levy after years of vexed political debate.
Separately, an India-backed mining consortium could shelve controversial plans to dump dredging waste in the Great Barrier Reef, with alternative sites on land being considered amid growing environmental concerns.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said yesterday there was an “emerging option” that could see the consortium — India’s Adani Group and Australia’s North Queensland Bulk Ports and GVK Hancock — submit a proposal suggesting onshore dumping locations.
“There is an emerging option which I’ve said we’d welcome and consider on its merits,” Hunt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“I can’t put a time frame. It may be a month, it may be less, it may not occur. But we have encouraged and invited (another option).”
The minister’s comments followed a report in The Australian Financial Review that the government-approved marine dumping plan would be abandoned to neutralize controversy over the possible damage it could cause to the World Heritage site.
Conservationists have said the dumping of 3 million cubic meters of material dredged from the seabed as part of a major coal port expansion at Abbot Point — on the Great Barrier Reef coast in Queensland — could hasten the natural wonder’s demise.
The dredging, which was approved in January, will allow freighters to dock at Abbot Point, increasing the coal port’s capacity by 70 percent to make it one of the world’s largest.
UNESCO in June deferred listing the reef as in danger and gave Australia until Feb. 1 next year to submit a report on what it was doing to protect the biodiverse site.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day