Ah, the boot is on several other feet this morning with Rio accusing the WA Liberal Government of a secret plan to hike royalties:
Promoted as a consultative and lengthy review process, the Colin Barnett-led government’s royalty rate assessment is coming under increasing criticism for allegedly having a pre-determined outcome that is designed to plug its leaking coffers.
In a submission to the state’s royalty review, Rio representatives said the state government was now considering changing the benchmark royalty rate, constituting a “major point of difference to the election platform of the Liberal Party”.
“This disparity is concerning from a transparency perspective, particularly given that no indication of any change to the review objectives was advised in the 14 months between the announcement of the review and release of the [terms of reference],” Rio’s submission said.
A review of the state’s royalty system still has several months to run…the government has already booked an extra $367 million in revenue between 2015 and 2017 from the outcome of the review…
One can’t help enjoying a little schadenfreude. Federal profits-based tax anyone?
