A mining tax for Australia: Your tax or mine? ONCE known as the lucky country for its mineral wealth, Australia has become, thanks to its latest mining boom, the warring country. On March 19th parliament passed a mining tax on profits from coal and iron ore, Australia's two biggest exports. Giving a flavour of the debate, the treasurer, Wayne Swan, attacked three of Australia's richest mining tycoons as "that tiny...0.1% who are blind to the national interest." One of them, Clive Palmer, responded by claiming the CIA was in cahoots with the Australian Greens (who supported the tax) to destroy the coal industry in his home state of Queensland. The passage of the mineral resource rent tax was a victory for Julia Gillard, the Labor prime minister. Her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, whom she unseated in 2010, had proposed a "super profits" tax covering most minerals. The plan, and Mr Rudd's prime ministership, crashed and burned after heavy-handed opposition from mining companies. Ms Gillard was more pragmatic. She applied the tax only to iron ore and coal, and negotiated terms with the three biggest companies, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. They will pay the bulk of a 30% tax on profits forecast to raise A$10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) over three years. But the battles may just be starting. A$450 billion is expected to be poured into Australian mining projects in the current financial year. Philip Lowe, deputy governor of the central bank, says this "once-in-a-century investment boom" in resource-rich Queensland and Western Australia is also driving up consumer spending in Sydney and Melbourne. Ms Gillard plans to use the mining tax to boost national infrastructure spending, raise pensions and cut company tax rates. This rankles with Western Australia's premier. Colin Barnett argues that his vast and empty state is responsible for most of the country's export wealth. The riches in the ground, he says, belong to the states, not Australians as a whole. Western Australia last year collected almost A$5 billion in mining royalties, a levy based on volumes mined. It can go on charging royalties, but the federal government will reimburse miners also paying the profits tax. The tax also divides miners. Andrew Forrest, who has the largest stake in Fortescue Metals, Australia's third-biggest iron-ore miner, claims the big three resource companies drafted it behind closed doors to minimise their tax liabilities at others" expense. Mr Barnett has pledged to support a legal challenge Mr Forrest says he will launch. While they argue, Ms Gillard seems the biggest political winner. Five months ago she won parliamentary approval for a plan to price carbon, another idea that Mr Rudd proposed and then mismanaged. These victories have strengthened her authority and, for the moment, defied critics" predictions of her imminent demise.