If I was Julia Gillard, I would call this an act of war.

MINERS have won the backing of other major industry groups in launching a fresh round of advertisements against Labor’s mining tax.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, representing smaller miners and explorers, said in Perth today it would begin television, radio and newspaper ads within days calling on the government to rescind the tax.

All this after Julia Gillard bent over backwards to accommodate the wishes of the big miners. The miners ran a scare campaign against it, the ALP gave in to some of the demands of the mining industry and reduced the tax rate.

An industry got to meet with the Prime Minister of the country and negotiate its own tax rates, earn concessions then they have the gall to run another advertising campaign during the federal election campaign against the government that negotiated with them!

If I were the ALP, I would go back to the original tax proposal and go to town on AMEC. If they want war, give them war: it is not like this is a hard policy to sell. Taxing the most profitable industry in Australia (that makes its profits from resources that are owned by the Australian people), then spending that money to cut the company tax rate for all business around Australia and for superannuation incentives for an ageing Australia.

Bring on the scare campaign from the Miners. This is a fight that the ALP can win. If the ALP can’t stand up on this and defend what is a good policy against a clearly self interested party, they really are totally impotent and this country has been lost forever.

Business and the mining industry have clearly shown that they are not friends of the ALP and are more than happy to beat them over the head with whatever they can, no matter what decision they make.

Even one retail association is attacking a tax that is being used to fund a tax-cut for them. I bet if their tax cut was being funded by taxes on middle-class or poor people they wouldn’t be so vocal.

AMEC chief executive Simon Bennison said two other business groups – the Retail Federation and the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry — were poised to also run ads against the tax.

But this, this quote is a keeper. I want to take this quote and make some more little baby quotes with it.

“We are taking this as a very apolitical approach,” he [Simon Bennison] said.

Tags: advertising, AMEC, Mining, Tax