Press Room

What the commentators have said on RSPT


June 3, 2010

This list is a chronological look at what the best known business commentators in Australia have been saying about the resources super profits tax.

Terry McCrann, News Ltd

May 11: "this ill-considered utterly inept ivory tower tax".

May 11: "Kevin and Wayne's RSPT - Really Stupid Politicians Tax".

Robert Gottliebsen, Business Spectator

May 28:
"... danger is that the government will believe its own rhetoric and not understand that you can't expect investment when you introduce retrospective taxation...this has become the corporate equivalent of the insulation debacle – a good idea badly implemented. "

May 25:
"The Australian government has resorted to African-style politics ".

May 25: "The government has tried to paint BHP as a foreign company. This requires no extra comment."

Stephen Bartholomeusz, Business Spectator

May 26:
" The RSPT in its current form, or anything resembling it, will destroy value and deter investment on an unprecedented scale".

May 7: "For a country that has built its international competitiveness ... on the back of an internationally competitive resource sectors ... looks a ridiculously ill-conceived strategy."

Alan Kohler, Business Spectator

May 31: "the resource super profits tax is a tragedy born of misunderstanding; the sort you get when gangs of armed robbers bump into each other in the dark during a heist."

May 6: "The latest effort is the resource super profits tax – a national embarrassment."

May 6: "It is plain to all that he is engaged in nothing more than a desperate grab for continued power and the money to fund it."

John Durie, The Australian

May 28: "Rudd added a new risk to doing business in Australia."

May 28: "Increased saving is good, but the piecemeal introduction of the measure, contrary to Henry recommendations, was just plain dumb."

May 27: "The concept of the tax is obviously widely supported by business but Rudd killed of any hope of support by his dim-witted execution."

Matthew Stevens, The Australian

May 4: "Rudd has decided to tamper with Australia's capacity to capture the potential of the Asian opportunity in the name of tax reform."

May 4: "Rudd's vision is limited by an over-riding political imperative."

Elizabeth Knight, Fairfax

May 5: "It's partnership Kevin Rudd-style."

Ian Verrender, Fairfax

May 25: " the entire affair can now officially be regarded as a circus."

May 25: "the performance from our parliamentary leaders has been equally appalling."

Stephen Mayne, Crikey

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