Politics

Yep. Certainly did.

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FMD. I knew it was a low number, but that is ridiculous.

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Something something lefty media something something polls were wrong

It’s Brexit. It’s Trump.
It’s an alt-right revolution. Get on board or be left behind, sad people.

Friggin’ lol.
WA. Millionaires and miners (and some, I assume, are good people).

I’ve got a new slogan for WA.
“Officially less racist than Queensland.”
What do you think?

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Just remember that the next time you see the guy strutting around like a demented rooster.

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I think that the proposed sale of 51% of Western Power was a big issue…people are sick and tired of politicians selling all the damn assets (that actually contribute revenue to the state) in the hope of a quick deficit fix and whilst telling us how good a deal it is, also telling us that our bills won’t go up…that’s constantly proven to a be a load of ■■■■■.

Also, there were two or three seats in the Northern suburbs where the sitting Liberal member was a member of Global Heart Church and I spoke to a number of friends who were concerned (peed off) about how this “church” was gaining control of the Liberal Party at local level.

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I have mixed emotions about selling of Western Power. On the one hand I’m sick of political parties screwing up the books so badly the only way out is to sell the backyard. How about saying NO once in while to everyone with an outstretched hand or, I know its old fashioned but saving up for sht. We’d all love a new stadium but do you have to build it at the peak of a mining/building boom? And a tarted up river bank is nice but why build it knowing that the income from royalties was dropping and the return from GST returns was heading toward 30c in the $? Borrowing money for vanity projects is dumb so I’m thinking get fcked, don’t sell my stuff to get yourselves out of the poo but on the other hand, with the advent and increasing cost effectiveness of DIY power, Western Power is a diminishing asset and will be worth less and less as the technology increases. Selling it now makes economic sense but it would sh*t me to tears because they’d be selling it not because they’re smart but because they’re stupid.

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I suppose Diggers, the question is do you view Western Power as an asset or a service. Jeff Kennett sold the SECV at a huge premium on its asset value but apart from the fact that any monies gained were wasted, we lost control of power supply and in the last 20 years service has diminished and prices increased greatly.

Also lost were huge amounts of jobs and the SECV were the biggest employer of apprentices in the Nation.

The SECV also had a great R&D laboratory who were working on many projects including solar and wind energy, and “clean coal”.

If you sell off power supply, why not water and everything else. I would actually have Government control more industry including owning all mineral exploration and exploitation.

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I like it.
Or maybe
“W.A. The sunscreen state. Less red necks than Queensland”

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Can I add to that?

“WA: QLD has the Rednecks AND our GST”

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Accurate statistics have a noted liberal bias.

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To be fair though, pre mining boom Victoria and NSW carried your poor, sad, under performing ■■■■. And will have to do so again now that you have both squandered said boom, and racked up massive debt for fark all gain.

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Lol, state bashing.

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surprising that mr “empirical evidence” cannot even maths. what a friggin dill.

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When an expert from inside the industry as a guest of the minerals council reckons we’re nuts with the way we do tax…_

PRRT too ‘generous’, says expert_

by Joanna Mather

_An international expert says the exploration incentives that Australia offers to oil and gas companies are “excessive”, as analysis by Citi shows a 10 per cent royalty would generate $3.96 billion over the next five years. _

University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz, who is in Australia as a guest of the Minerals Council, said the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) was too generous. It is under review following a halving of revenue to about $800 million a year.

“The PRRT … in my mind was too generous for exploration, particularly,” Professor Mintz told The Australian Financial Review.

_“It has very high carry-forward rates for unused deductions – excessively high.” _

Former Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson, who helped design the PRRT, agreed deductions for exploratory activities should be pared back. The PRRT provides uplift for exploration costs at the long-term bond rate plus 15 per cent.

“It could be argued that 15 percentage points is now overly generous,” Dr Emerson writes in today’s Financial Review.

For future exploration, it could be pared back to 5 percentage points to align it with the treatment of development expenditure."

_The government review is headed by Mike Callaghan, a former executive director of Treasury. A report is due in April and recommendations will be fed into the budget process. _

The Tax Justice Network has called for the introduction of a royalty on all offshore oil and gas projects, possibly of 10 per cent, which would raise between $4 billion and $6 billion over the next four years.

A Citi research note puts the figure at $US3 billion [$3.96 billion] over the next five years, if there was no grandfathering for legacy production.

_“The argument against, as presented by the Henry review, is that a volume or revenue-based tax is inefficient given it penalises all projects, and may prevent development of marginal projects,” the note says. _

“Most oil and gas companies also flagged this risk of reduced future investment, which we also agree with.”

_Professor Mintz, whose work involves comparing the tax burden for investment in different countries, said Australia’s company tax rate should be reduced to 25 per cent. _

He calculates the tax burden on new investments in manufacturing and service industries in Australia to be 28.7 per cent, which includes company tax as well as other taxes, such as stamp duties.

This is more than nine percentage points above than the OECD average of 19.2 per cent.

While the marginal effective tax and royalty rate (METRR) for Australia’s oil and gas sector is minus 35.5 per cent – that is, companies are “over-incentivised” for investing, Professor Mintz says – iron ore mining is heavily taxed at 37.8 per cent.

_That rate is second highest next to South Africa at 39.7 per cent, and more than seven other major iron-producing economies. _

“In our numbers Australia’s tax treatment of oil and gas is the lowest effective rate [compared] with all the major countries including Canada,” he said. “I do think there is value to reforming the PRRT, keeping in mind you have to be very careful with transition.”

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ON percentage needs to be broken down by electorate, as it did not contest all seats. In some city, as well as rural electorates, it was around 10-12%. It might get an upper house seat, as under the WA system ( as in Victoria) if you vote below the line , you have to number all 50 candidates. That gives an advantage to micro parties .

Selling just under half of it, which was their plan, makes no economic sense except in the short term to take some, that’s some, pressure off the deficit. As it stands, it is a significant income producer for the state with recent enormous sums spent on infrastructure replacement. There was no mention of a plan to replace the lost income. There will still be a very large percentage of the population not in a position to upgrade to DIY power, especially when you factor in housing affordability. Why would someone renting go for DIY power? Why would your normal greedy landlord install it? Living in rural rusted on conservative WA is sometimes very demoralizing for someone on the left of centre like me but Saturdays’ election result has given me an enormous lift. Stopping work on the Rowe 8 disgrace is icing on the cake.

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You would have heard that B Grylls has conceded in the Pilbara. Didn’t mind Grylls and he certainly followed through on forcing the Libs to spend money in the regions. Supported the royalties idea as well but he overreached at $5 per tonne.

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It’s actually making landlords money. They can advertise a flat fee for power in the home. So say your bill is $500 a quarter, but with panels it drops to $400. Whack $300/$400 extra and advertise the property INCLUDING power. Landlords profit.

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That’s so sleazy that I might try it.

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