As I’m sure you have all heard, today Julia Gillard showed that she has a spine made out of gelatin:

The government has excluded all commodities from the tax apart from iron ore and coal, easing industry fears about the potential impact on base metals projects.

Under the revised deal announced this morning, onshore oil and gas projects including the booming coal seam gas sector in Queensland will be covered by the existing Petroleum Resource Rent tax, levied at 40 per cent.

The rate at which the tax applies has risen from the long-term bond rate – currently just over 5 per cent – to the bond rate plus 7 per cent. That makes the threshold about 12 per cent.

What has been cut to pay for the revenue shortfall this will create?

The $1.5 billion reduction in revenue under the new plan to $10.5 billion will mean the government must reform some of the initiatives that were contingent upon the tax, including the slashing of the company tax rate to 28 per cent.

The government has now said the company tax rate will be cut to 29 per cent from 2013-14, saving $600 milion, but will not be reduced further.

And industry is outraged:

Australian Industry Group CEO Heather Ridout, who was on the Henry tax review panel, says she is deeply disappointed that the proposed business tax cut went from a recommendation to lower the company tax rate to 25 per cent, then to 28 per cent in the original mining tax proposal, and now is at just 29 per cent.

And smaller mining companies suddenly have something to say:

Despite the majors claiming a win with the new resources tax, the mid-tier miners and juniors have said the deal was designed by the big players, with the smaller miners “stuck on the sidelines”.

Emerging Pilbara miner BC Iron’s managing director Mike Young said the government had been “done over” by the major miners.

“The big foreign-owned miners, the three big bad guys that Tony Abbott sided with, have done the government over,” he said.

“Real Australian companies, like BC Iron and Atlas Iron, sit on the sidelines and don’t get consulted.

In fact, they are all coming out of the woodwork:

Meanwhile, West Australian company Atlas Iron says small miners have been sidelined in the negotiations on the tax so far.

“I would be concerned if there was an announcement that took place before there was proper consultation and a consensus because after all, that’s where we thought we were heading with Julia Gillard,” managing director David Flanagan told ABC’s Lateline Business.

“But maybe not and maybe we’ve got a lot more reason to be concerned about the future of Australia.”

He says big miners cannot speak on behalf of smaller companies.

As far as I’m concerned they should all STFU about it right now. Where the fuck were they two weeks ago when the government was being crucified over the issue (and a Prime Minister being disposed)?

Completely silent, thats what. Take this from the Australian Industry Group’s media release page:

And it goes right back until the 8th of June and no mention of the RSPT. No mention in favour of the company tax cut, just complete silence until today. Just one media release, bitching about the reduction in the cut of company tax.
Get fucked

They have no right to whinge now, so they should all just shut the fuck up. This is what you get when you don’t speak out in favour of a policy that was getting steamrolled. It gets steamrolled.

ELSEWHERE: Jeremy over at Anonymous Lefty tackles the issue beautifully in his post. I wish I had a Crikey subscription so I could read Bernard Keane’s contribution, but I’m sure you subscribers will tell me how awesome it was. And Dave from Albury reminds the ALP who their friends are.

UPDATE: From today’s news, more unhappy industry groups who were silent while the policy was being attacked. For all of you I feel precisely zero sympathy, you made you’re own bed on this one.

Retailers were also unhappy. ”Due to tax concessions to the mining sector, the Gillard government has penalised all companies and small businesses that were due to benefit from the promised company tax cut,” said the Australian Retailers Association director, Russell Zimmerman.

Oh, and some super funds decide to finally speak up in favour in the policy.

Australia’s big super funds expressed relief that mandatory superannuation increases would go ahead despite the concessions to the miners.

Tags: Atlas Iron, Australian Industry Group, BHP, Julia Gillard, Mining, RSPT, Tax, Xstrata Rio Tinto