Wednesday 27th of November 2024
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grafting the piper rather than pay tax to the burghers.....

Public subsidies for coal plants are merely the icing on the cake of a triumphant year for multinational fossil fuel corporations operating in this country. Michael West and Callum Foote report on Fossocracy Australia.

If democracy is government of the people by the people for the people, surely a government whose two major parties are financed by fossil fuel payments, and which returns the favour with favourable policies and billions in fossil fuel subsidies each year, can reasonably be labeled a fossocracy.

 

by  and 

 

It might seem a cheeky term, but not an unreasonable one if you follow the money: record fossil profits and record fossil subsidies at a time when the cost of living is soaring, there is record demand for food relief and public housing, and the planet is warming.

This week’s publication of the annual Michael West Media Top 40 Tax Dodgers confirmed fossil fuel corporations once again as the biggest “leaners” on the public purse; and that, hard on the heels of the government’s sheepish admission there would be hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies for thermal coal plants operated by the likes of Rio Tinto and Origin Energy. That was quietly concocted amid the Christmas cheer to counter the modest moves by the Albanese government to cap gas and coal prices – instead of something robust such as a super profits tax or carbon exports levy. 

It should be noted that Rio pays a lot of corporate income tax in Australia, but both Rio and Origin are still guilty of aggressive tax avoidance; the former with its Singapore hubs grift and the latter with its fake LNG sale.

Further to the organs of Australia’s fossocratic state is our very own Pravda, a fossil media duopoly of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Nine Entertainment’s AFR, both of these funded by federal government subsidies and millions of dollars a year in fossil fuel industry advertising and sponsorships. 

The fossil media literally, daily, rewrite the press releases and espouse the talking points of the fossil lobby with its publicly subsidised tax-free status: the Minerals Council of Australia and APPEA (both lobby groups are controlled by foreign corporations despite boasting the word “Australia” in their titles).

This barrage of propaganda is promptly telecast across the rest of the fossil media, from a gun-shy ABC to the subsidised airwaves of Sky News, talkback radio and Kerry Stokes fossil media Seven West.

How otherwise could it have possibly come about that the biggest LNG exporter in the world is importing gas back into Australia from overseas while the gas cartel of Shell, Exxon, Santos and Origin reaps record profits and claim “gas shortages on the East Coast”?

How else could it be that truly independent analysis of this mollycoddled gas cartel be routinely blocked from appearing in the fossil media, such as this from IEFFA’s Bruce Robertson?

How else could it be that Australia is a fossil pariah globally yet remains on track to frack the Beetaloo Basin which could blow out the country’s emissions out by another by 20%?

How can it be that the government is forking out billions in subsidies to foreign tax avoiders while poverty, the working poor and homelessness are all on the rise?

How else could the fossil media duopoly, straight-face, page one, run the hissy-fit by Santos boss Kevin Gallagher that the Albanese government’s modest gas cap measures are “Soviet-style” and risked Australia turning into Venezuela or Nigeria? So embarrassing was the rant that Santos didn’t even run it on its website but got the lapdogs of the fossil press to run it for them.

in many cases, the big fossil players pay more in political donations than they do in tax.

Once again, the MWM Top 40 is dominated by foreign-controlled fossil corporations paying little or no tax, yet the ATO annual transparency report upon which the figures are based is lagging, capturing mostly the profits and tax payments up until this time last year (December 2021).

Since then, with the war in Ukraine sending coal oil and gas prices into orbit, both revenue and profits have soared. (Indeed, the new government is tipped to have lucked into a Budget surplus this year thanks to precisely this.)

We will therefore see some of the worst offenders, the likes of Exxon, Energy Australia, Santos and Shell perhaps paying what will appear to be big licks of corporate income tax. It’s not about the size though, it is about the proportion.

Globally, Shell racked up a $25bn profit, Exxon $23bn, Chevron $18bn and Santos $1.2bn. That’s profit, not revenue. Locally, their subsidiaries are racking up double digit increases in revenue (not profit but revenue) and are now expected to be so glamorously profitable at the end of 2022, that when their December year profits are quietly released to the corporate regulator in late April, they will finally be seen to be paying some income tax.

A social licence?

So the question must be asked, again, what social licence do the fossil giants have to operate in Australia, given their lies and fear-mongering, their impact on the climate and failure to pay tax to fund roads, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure?

When you consider that up to 80% of gas and 90% of coal is exported, and that the dazzling profits accrue to foreign shareholders … none.

And that is why they are buying their social licence, not by paying tax like the tobacco companies for instance, but by sporting sponsorships, hundreds of them from local nippers to first grade football and national teams.

In doing this, they are buying PR and advertising, paying for the image of a social contribution to Australia in lieu of paying tax. 

Routinely, they pay “independent experts” to conduct “analysis” into their contribution, and dutifully, their fossil media clients reproduce their press releases.

But a dig into the actual numbers unearths the big lie.  

The Big Lie

The claim by the Minerals Council and their experts (formerly Deloitte and now EY) is that the big mining companies provide over $43 billion in contributions to the Australian government every year in the form of royalties and taxes.

Keeping to one side for a moment that royalties are not taxes, they are the payments which companies make to the states to extract our resources, the fossil lobby has overcooked its contribution by more than $80bn over the years.

The Minister for Energy, Madeline King, has repeated these claims from the carbon lobby, that the mining industry made payments of $43.2 billion in company tax and royalties to Australian governments in a speech given at an ​​NT Resources Week conference. The figures were repeated on ABC Radio without question.

The EY report, the latest that is, has – like Deloitte’s previous work – failed to disclose that up to 60% of the tax that they claim the mining industry pays to Australian governments is returned in the form of GST refunds.

They have included GST paid but not refunded. The false claims come at a critical time for the mining and energy sectors which are reaping record profits, partially at the expense of energy customers, and the minerals lobby is threatening a public campaign against the government if efforts are made to increase taxes and royalties.

As for the government, they are doing things, unlike the previous mob which had a penchant for words over action. The gas and coal caps are modest but you could argue politically savvy, even brave by recent standards.

Yet they are small steps, tiny steps, which do little curb the power and the influence of the fossil giants. Or to tax them properly, contain energy prices, or strike significant reform.

The solution then? Abolish fossil donations, enact media reform (rather than embracing continued subsidies) to attract a diversity of voices and detract from the relentless barrage of propaganda, and bring in a levy on carbon exports as per this excellent roadmap from another independent source Tim Buckley. And stay true to the pledge of no new fossil fuel projects, and up the ante to no fossil subsidies, none.

When the time comes to mend all the mining voids, to rehabilitate, the fossil brigade will have made their super profits and left.

 

READ MORE:

https://michaelwest.com.au/fossocracy-australia-government-of-the-people-by-the-fossil-fuel-companies-for-the-fossil-fuel-companies/

 

 

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growing ephemerals......

 

BY Matthew Franklin

 

Anthony Albanese enters 2023 at the high point of his political career.

With his victory in May’s federal election, the Prime Minister has cemented his place in Labor history as the hero who ousted Scott Morrison – seen by progressives as the embodiment of conservatism whose hubris made him unfit to lead the nation.

Albanese has made progress during his long political honeymoon, but 2023 is the year he must show Australians why he was worth their vote.

Albanese would be kidding himself if he believed he won the election.

The truth is that Morrison lost the election with his hubris and addiction to conflict.

Labor’s role was to highlight Morrison’s flaws and present itself as a safe alternative.

Albanese now needs to deliver on his election promises, including his vow to change our political culture by putting the national interest ahead of politics.

When it comes to core election promises, he has made a good start.

He has created a National Anti-Corruption Commission, taken meaningful action on climate change after years of inertia, and endorsed pay rises for aged care and other low-paid workers.

He has also progressed his plan to create a voice to Parliament for First Nations people by preparing for a referendum to be held in 2023.

Importantly, Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have re-established Australia’s relations with China, after Morrison trashed the national interest by using rhetorical attacks on China to score domestic political points.

But promised lower energy prices and higher wage growth to lift living standards have been far more challenging in the face of economic headwinds and business sector opposition to industrial relations and energy reforms.

Business, backed by elements of the media, looms as a genuine threat to Albanese’s progress in 2023.

Albanese’s task will be to reconcile the reality that business profits drive economic and jobs growth with the perversity of a system in which ineffective IR arrangements have failed to produce fair pay rises for Australians at a time of rising living costs.

It is no surprise that business leaders argue for higher profits. That is their job.

But Albanese’s job is to ask whether Australians deserve something more than a system in which businesses claim the only way they can create new jobs is by denying pay rises to existing loyal workers.

He must get community-wide buy-in for measures that boost productivity.

Likewise, he must ask Australians whether it makes sense to sell so much of our natural gas reserves overseas to generate big profits that resulting domestic supply shortages drive local gas prices to unaffordable levels.

Whether Albanese possesses the ability to truly lead the nation to better outcomes will determine his progress in 2023 and his place in history.

As opposition leader, Albanese said Australians had “conflict fatigue’’ and wanted a better style of politics less compromised by “argument for its own sake’’.

He says he wants to emulate the approach of Bob Hawke, who brought business and trade unions together to deliver productivity-enhancing reforms that generated Australia’s longest period of continuous economic growth.

Hawke’s genius was his ability to encourage all sides of a particular argument to compromise – to make people understand that blind adherence to entrenched positions prevents progress.

Albanese has bitter personal experience of the folly in needless conflict.
After serving 11 years in opposition, he watched leadership tension within the Labor Party destroy the Rudd and Gillard governments between 2007 and 2013.

His now-famous 2012 declaration “I like fighting Tories”, was not a bloodthirsty reference to his dislike of conservative politicians, but an appeal to his colleagues to stop squabbling among themselves and to focus on using the power of government to achieve progress for Australians.

Writing in The Australian a year ago, he argued: “When people work together, they can achieve great things. Effective leaders point the way to a better future by encouraging people to co-operate.’’

If unity and a focus on the national interest ahead of politics is the aim, Albanese will have to contain his own team, which includes many ministers who dropped the ball in the Rudd-Gillard era.

The Labor Party is intensely tribal. Many of its MPs are life-long activists with limited experience outside trade unions and political offices. Given their pedigrees, they find conflict to be a natural state.

There is nothing wrong with argument. It can improve policy outcomes.
But as Albanese also wrote a year ago: “The problem is when the argument becomes the end in itself’’.

Around this time every year Albanese visits Queensland’s Woodford Folk Festival. He has great memories from previous years when he would spend time at the festival with Hawke, who also attended each year.

No doubt this holiday period, he will reflect on what it took for Hawke to be such a successful unifying national leader.

In 2022, Albanese proved he has the discipline, patience and strategic smarts to lead the nation’s oldest political party.

But his task in 2023 will be far more difficult. He needs to transform himself from the shrewd tactician who slayed the Morrison government into a man who can lead an entire nation.

Matthew Franklin is a journalist and former media adviser to Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd

 

 

READ MORE:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2023/01/01/anthony-albanese-2023/

 

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hiking yikes....

 

BY Michael West

 

Can Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns “do a Palaszczuk” and hike coal royalties on multinationals now reaping super-profits from the War in Ukraine, or are they too scared of a coal lobby backlash? Michael West reports on the Budget crisis facing NSW as voters head for an election in three months.

NSW is about to go into election mode. The big day is March 25 and leadership contenders Dominic Perrottet and Labor’s Chris Minns have a dilemma.

The fall in property prices and sales volume is about to hammer the state budget. NSW net debt is estimated to blow out from $53bn to $114bn over the forward estimates yet there are no new revenue ideas of any significance. In the face of a savage backlash from the Queensland coal lobby, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk brought in a staggered regime for coal royalties, in the mode of a progressive tax system where the more you make the more tax you pay.

Yet of course, royalties are not taxes, they are the payment a company makes to the state for digging the state’s resources out of the ground and exporting them. Coal royalties are tipped to deliver an extra $5bn for the Queensland coffers this year.

Like Queensland, NSW is a massive coal producer. And it’s dirtier coal. Whereas in Queensland, the bulk of production is metallurgical coal for steel production, the vast majority of NSW coal is thermal coal for electricity. And the price of that coal has shot up from $100 a tonne to $390 a tonne.

 

If the state were to adopt Queensland’s reform to a staggered regime for coal royalties, the NSW government could deliver an extra $23bn. But here they are still subsidising their multinational coal producers with public hand-outs. 

In NSW, we have a $100 million Coal Innovation Fund. It funds things like “clean coal” technology (carbon capture and storage) which is widely debunked as commercially not viable. This sort of thing:

 “A $15 million grant from the Fund will help establish a new facility at South32’s Illawarra coal mine, featuring cutting-edge technology, to tackle fugitive methane emissions. The grant will establish a pilot Ventilation Air Methane (VAM) abatement project that will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the innovative technology for industry. The pilot project, which is being co-funded by South32 with a co-contribution of $4.5 million, will help to encourage greater investment in, and uptake of, VAM abatement technologies to significantly reduce fugitive methane emissions from coal mining operations in NSW.”

Just like the federal government, which caved in and subsidised coal companies such as Rio Tinto and Origin Energy via its coal caps system announced just before Christmas, NSW has perennially failed to stand up to the muscle of the coal lobby. And heading into the election in March, it is unlikely to attract a campaign such as the $40m ad campaign pledged by the Queensland Resources Council against the Palaszczuk government.

Still, the numbers are compelling [...]

NSW gross debt – from latest budget – is projected to rise from $135bn to $221bn by June 2026.

That’s almost $17k per head in gross debt (using NSW population) rising to $28k by June 2026. And note the tail of the Budget papers says, “The RBA’s forecasts in May assumed that interest rates will continue to lift, reaching around 1.75% per cent by the end of 2022 and 2.5% per cent by the end of 2023. 

NSW Treasury forecasts are broadly consistent with RBA assumptions. So the Budget forecasts are already way off with the cash rate now 3.1%. 

The politics of trying to capture coal super profits is interesting. Palaszczuk was the one to confirm the Albanese government’s secretive and reluctant subsidies for coal-fired power plants. Coal caps do not benefit the states and their royalties income.

 

READ MORE:

https://michaelwest.com.au/annastacia-palaszczuk-leaves-perrottet-and-nsw-in-the-dust-on-coal-super-profits/

 

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coal hunting......

A Hunter Valley coal mine’s proposal to dramatically increase its output has been condemned by critics who say it puts the NSW government’s environmental record on the line in the run-up to the state election.

The mine’s owners, Glencore and Yancoal, released an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Monday which outlines the proposed expansion and extension of the life of its Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) open-cut mine, which in 2020 produced 17 million tonnes of thermal coal.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/absurd-position-concerns-grow-over-hunter-valley-coal-mine-expansion-20230130-p5cgjp.html

 

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