By stopping the corruption in the mining sector, where politicians give the miners all of our resources tax free, and then get fat jobs with the miners, we could have everything we need and more
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tried to tax big miners
It didn’t end well for him.
👇👇
Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd says three of the world’s biggest mining multinationals have run sophisticated operations to kill off climate action in Australia and continue to wield day-to-day influence over government through a vast lobbying network and an “umbilical” relationship with the Murdoch media.
“Glencore, Rio [Tinto] and BHP ran sophisticated political operations against my government, both on climate change and the mining tax” he told the Guardian.
“They worked hard … to get rid of the resource super profit tax, against the interests of other mining companies and the national economy as a whole. They worked hard … in 2013 against the carbon price. They succeeded in both enterprises.”
Rudd attributes the day-to-day influence of the sector to two mechanisms. The first is what he describes as the vast lobbying network it uses to pressure political parties. The second is its close relationship with the Murdoch media, which owns most of the country’s print media. Rudd describes the relationship as “umbilical”.
“When did you last see the Murdoch media critical of any of these corporations?” Rudd said. “Rarely. If ever.”
Hmmm, the fact that Rudd tried and failed to carry out a difficult but fundamentally positive reform is not a very strong case against pursuing it again in the future, for better or worse political progress is almost always multiple failed attempts punctuated by small iterative steps forward.
The idea that Murdoch’s influence is down to the consumers is pretty naive. The Murdoch media is so dominant that it has the capacity to poison every narrative, while one can seek alternative sources those sources struggle financially and can’t market themselves to compete effectively. Added to this is the fact that their dominance means that nearly all incidental news exposure will be Murdoch, they are the papers on the stands, they are the news breaks after sports matches, they are favoured by social media algorithms. Not everyone has the time or inclination to put in the substantial daily work to combat this, Murdoch media dominance is a systemic problem, not one of individual choice.
The suggestion that there’s no excuse not to take a gamble and try again really undersells how bad the LNP is for this country. A decade of Labor would do far more good than properly taxing the mining companies.
I know a lot of terminally online people like to say both sides are the same, and on the headline policies a lot of the time they are, but if you pay attention to the fine details you’ll see that the coalition are SO much worse.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tried to tax big miners
It didn’t end well for him.
👇👇
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/10/mining-firms-worked-kill-off-climate-action-australia-ex-pm-kevin-rudd
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By the way, nobody is forcing people to read Murdoch media (The Australian / Herald Sun / Daily Telegraph / Courrier Mail / Sky News).
Rupert Murdoch is a criminal but millions of citizens are voluntarily consuming his crap.
Hmmm, the fact that Rudd tried and failed to carry out a difficult but fundamentally positive reform is not a very strong case against pursuing it again in the future, for better or worse political progress is almost always multiple failed attempts punctuated by small iterative steps forward.
The idea that Murdoch’s influence is down to the consumers is pretty naive. The Murdoch media is so dominant that it has the capacity to poison every narrative, while one can seek alternative sources those sources struggle financially and can’t market themselves to compete effectively. Added to this is the fact that their dominance means that nearly all incidental news exposure will be Murdoch, they are the papers on the stands, they are the news breaks after sports matches, they are favoured by social media algorithms. Not everyone has the time or inclination to put in the substantial daily work to combat this, Murdoch media dominance is a systemic problem, not one of individual choice.
The suggestion that there’s no excuse not to take a gamble and try again really undersells how bad the LNP is for this country. A decade of Labor would do far more good than properly taxing the mining companies.
I know a lot of terminally online people like to say both sides are the same, and on the headline policies a lot of the time they are, but if you pay attention to the fine details you’ll see that the coalition are SO much worse.