Bligh wants changes to resources taxPUBLISHED: 07 May 2010 16:14:04 | UPDATED: 07 May 2010 16:32:12PRINT EDITION: 07 May 2010
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh wants changes to the new Rudd government resources tax to protect fledgling mining industries.
Ms Bligh told reporters she will next week express her concerns to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan in relation to the taxing of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.
The federal government plans to impose a 40 per cent tax on mining firms' so-called "super" profits.
"I will be talking directly with the prime minister and the federal treasurer," Ms Bligh told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.
"The mining industry is not only important to Queensland it's important to the whole economy and it's too important not to get it right.
"I am looking for some changes to these proposals. LNG is too important for us to get wrong.
"I want to make sure Kevin understands, in no uncertain terms, just how important it is to get parts of this package right."
Ms Bligh, who has just returned from a North American trade mission, said she would also be seeking the views of mining sector.
"I am meeting with the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) on Monday to talk to them about their concerns," she said.
"I want to make sure we have some real clarity around questions like what is a super profit, and how to we protect new industries like LNG."
QRC chief executive Michael Roche told a business lunch on Friday the tax amounted to an almost 60 per cent impost on the sector.
"This is not a tax on super profits - it's a tax on the profits of one industry sector judged to have a limitless ability to pay, pure and simple," Mr Roche said.
"On the RSPT (resource super profit tax) profit base, we are looking at an effective tax rate for resource companies in Australia of around 57 per cent.
"This is one of the highest rates in the world - second only to Norway at a reported 78 per cent."
Oil and gas producer Santos has told shareholders that the company is considering the tax's impact on its flagship liquefied natural gas project at Gladstone.
The $7.7 billion Gladstone LNG joint-venture with Malaysia's Petronas is a two-train LNG project that will take coal seam gas from eastern Queensland, liquefy it at a plant at Gladstone and export it to Asian customers.
But the company said it would "use the next few months to carefully consider the government's tax changes announced on the weekend, including seeking clarity from the government regarding important details not included in Sunday's announcement".
Queensland opposition mines spokesman Jeff Seeney said on Friday Santos' position threw into doubt the future of the industry.
"Now all the anticipated development in central Queensland is in doubt - all the jobs and all the export income have now been delayed at best, and at worst, lost all together," Mr Seeney said.
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