What ought the mining industry do on the RRT

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To date I have been very critical of the mining industry peak bodies because their strategy for fighting the government has been 'highly counterproductive'. So what ought they be doing? I would suggest many of the answers are contained in this blog, but let us summarise:

1. Historical perspective: They need to educate Australians about the historical significance of these moves. The increasing shift away from Common Law to Statutory Law has resulted in an increase in arbitrary, often which is opportunistic, as opposed to based on any coherent principles (like Common Law).

2. The nature of fascism: Fascism is not simply mass murders and goose-stepping Nazis, it is really more about coercion and arbitrary power. The death squads came later. Nazism was the result of an intellectual decay. The Western allies squashed the Nazis, but they did not eradicate the cause...which was collectivism, i.e. Subordination of the individual to the state or the collective. We are moving towards China and North Korea.

3. Tax in perspective: They ought to be comparing this tax to the nationalisation of the Venezuelan oil industry and Zimbabwean white farm holdings, and the Saudi oil industry. This imposition ought to be compared with previous government actions, e.g. The Stolen Children Generation, etc. No joke! This is serious.

4. Cost of the policy: They ought to be talking about the higher sovereign risk attached to Australian (household) debt thanks to Rudd.

5. Legacy of financial mismanagement: They ought to be attacking the Liberals & Labor for their combined financial complicity with the EU and US governments in facilitating the current financial crisis.

6. Secession of WA: The secession of WA from the Commonwealth is an extreme measure, however it is an extreme act...so well-justified. A comparison ought to be made with the Boston Tea Party in the USA.

7. Enlist all business: They ought to be trying to enlist ALL Australian business in their camapign to eradicate this tax, as other sectors will be targeted next.

8. Enlist the governor general: They ought to be complaining to the G-G about this unprecedented act of expropriation. This tax is contrary to the spirit of the law.

9. High Court action: They ought to be taking action in the High Court to have this idea set aside or ruled upon as unconstitutional. A lot of other law has been enacted which is likewise unconstitutional. This policy is in breach of the spirit of the Senate, contrary to the 'reason as the standard' basis for parliamentary debate, and the provisions for 'good government'

Basically I am saying that the miners need to mount a combined conceptual-concrete policy which will thoroughly embarrass the Liberal-Labor government. Don't just single out the Labor government, as we were left with a Labor government because of the moral indifference and fascism inherent in the Liberals. I see no difference.

They ought to abandon their prior strategies of pragmatically arguing that Australia needs a strong mining industry, attacking the banks because they pay less tax, etc.

If the mining industry needs a ethicist to argue these points for them...they have my email.

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Author

Andrew Sheldon

Resource Rent Tax

Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com