The tax backdown negotiated by Julia Gillard ended up costing the Australian taxpayer about $60 billion over the coming decade. Figures released by Treasury in February 2011 showed the original ''resources super profits tax'' would have made about $99 billion between 2012-13 and 2020-21. The revised minerals resource rent tax was forecast to earn $38.5 billion. A backdown, to be sure, but a tax nevertheless.
So, has the prospect of higher taxation killed mining investment and jobs? Hardly.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Jessica's Jerk
HARD though it is to believe, there really is someone dimmer than blonde economics writer Jessica Irvine, who penned this analysis before being seduced to the dark ranks of Rupert Murdoch's scribblers:
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don't be so modest!
ReplyDeleteYour arguments against the MRRT are simply stunning, indeed better than anything Irvine has said.
As someone with more than trifling economics qualifications and experience, the vacuity of Ms Irvine's articles have left me gobsmacked.
ReplyDeleteThere are some pretty poor finance and economics journalists around the place but Ms Irvine is truly a lightweight amongst lightweights.
I don't know about other News Ltd tabloids but the Adelaide Advertiser is now almost entirely aimed at women. (As is most TV now.) The Sunday Mail is entirely a women's magazine. My guess is they thought Irvine would write this "heavyweight" subject in a way that women might read. In fact, she just waffles on; the way too many Fairfax journalists have been allowed to get away with for years. I don't think she has turned up in The Australian yet and it's rumoured that The Australian and the new CEO Kimmy-boy are at loggerheads. I wonder if she was Kimmy's brilliant acquisition along with all his other changes.
DeletePedro of Adelaide
This Irvine lass has popped up in the Adelaide Advertiser (which is now a rag of tissue-type quality). I cannot understand her writings. Now I know why I cannot comprehend them. So, I no longer read her page. Oath, there are many writers in the Advertiser I cannot read - (Irvine; Tash Stott-Despoja; Sarah Young; much of Jory; Penberthy; Tory Shepherd; and a collection of stand-by types).
ReplyDeleteWhy buy it? The comics are OK; the BD&M occasionally reminds us that our friends are mortal; and it makes the Weekend Australian seem even better.
Well like Jessica I've also noticed that they still show those ads with big yellow trucks driven by bubbly mothers so I reckon she's right on this one.
ReplyDeleteFrom the article:
ReplyDelete"REPORTS of the mining industry's death have been much exaggerated. Make no mistake about it: Australia's mining boom is very much alive and kicking. For all the threats of impending death, doom and destruction from government policy, figures this week from the Bureau of Statistics confirm that the unprecedented boom in mining investment rolls on."
This was written in June!
But what's more incredible is the idea that the OMISSION to impose a tax "costs" the taxpayer the amount of the tax not collected. From the "National econonomics editor". Astounding.
Well, I suppose they could make company tax 99%, Prof, then reduce it to 85%, and tell the whole unemployed and bankrupt nation the disaster is all due to the terrible 'costs' to the nation of the uncollected tax.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like Irving's airhead economics to me.
3rd August 2012 - "Welcome Aboard"
ReplyDeleteSadly, that was the last post by Tim Blair on the subject of Jessica Irvine. All the other posts before that were considerably funnier.
Prof so glad you picked up on this. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw her name on a News Ltd site. She should be poached alright... in hot water.
ReplyDeleteThomas the Tout describes The Advertiser well.
ReplyDeleteAdd Daniel Wills to the list - he must have an office at Labor HQ, perhaps a flat, for his constant articles read as glowing hymns of praise about his masters, and if the Liberals are ever mentioned then only the very worst photo of Isobel Redmond will suffice as accompaniment. This week he was desperately talking up Jay Weatherill, the rubber stamp of Rann. With a flattering and chumsy/smiley family photo, of course. No mention of Penny, strangely.
Susie O'Brien is another of the unreadables - once bitten, twice shy.
Presently, the paper is dog-whistling with a repeat photo of Prince Charles in top hat.
The online presence has not had an editorial since who-knows-when.
And you always know when Labor is having yet another particularly bad day - parish pump, zoo, brave single "mum", large dreamy twilight photo simulations, Rundle Mall, Rundle Mall preachers, Hindley Street brawls and footy articles leave no room for the news.
The Advertiser leaves Adelaide disconnected from the rest of Australia and the world (check out the "social" photos); a far, far cry from its noble days as a free colony and a place of considerable intellectual endeavour.
You've read my mind Professor ... I've been wondering how she got the gig at News in light of her comical work at Fairfax. I'm with you ... Fess up !!!
ReplyDeleteJohn S
Perhaps it just goes with the attempt to be what The Age can't be, an employer of a mix of opinion writers. It's an unfortunate by- product of such even handedness that you're forced to publish lefty idiots as well as sensible conservatives.
ReplyDeleteNext thing you know they'll be bringing across that troglodyte, Ross Gittens. I can't believe there are sentient beings at Fairfax who review his rubbish and think it is even suitable for litter box lining.
ReplyDeleteWhen Blair wrote that post about Irvine I submitted a comment to the effect that he must surely be joking as Irvine is a fool of the highest order, and not something a guy like Blair should be trumpeting as a coup for News Corp. Alas that was the one and only time one of my Blair blog comments was binned by their censors.
No way Tommo,I mean who'd be desperate enough to want to sleep with the Fat Fashionista?
DeleteMaybe Blair was being sarcastic, tommo...it is his style. It's how he reacts to everything.
ReplyDeleteBack when the dinosaurs roamed the earth I did one year of Economics at LaTrobe and hated it with a passion. But I am supremely confident that I know more about economics than Jessica and Wayne Swan combined.
ReplyDeleteWho hired her? As Blogstrop has pointed out...someone trying to meet the requirements of the Diversity Policy at News Ltd.
The shift to Newscorp has lifted the scales from Ms Irvine's eyes. While she hasn't moved to the right, at least now she is prepared to recognise the inane economic choices of the Gillard-Green kakistocracy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/jessica-irvine/put-an-end-to-wasteful-spending/story-fnfhw5ld-1226501853468
Megan...I'm more worried about the lack of diversity at AdelaideNow...it's turned in to The Punch overnight. The surprisingly high number of feminists there writing childish articles is only outnumbered by the number of angry men responding back in the comments section.
ReplyDeleteEconomics 1959 was a cross country run from Mont Park Mental Asylum locale now LaTrobe. Same diagnosis, different inmates.
ReplyDelete