In simple words for simpletons like you:
This is unnecessary. Even if I wrote something ignorant or wrong...you shouldn't belittle someone for their opinion.
taxation increases the price of a good which in effect decreases its supply/demand and therefore economic activity. If mining companies were taxed more, guess what they would do to stay profitable? that's right, they'd fire their workers baby. How would an increased tax rate for mining companies affect China, who buys up most of our minerals? Well they would either 1. take their business elsewhere, to countries like Canada and Brazil for instance; or 2. increase the prices of their exports to reflect the rise in cost. Hey, guess where most of our imports come from? That's right, China baby. Regardless of how you look at it, we lose. Either China will stop buying our shit(or not buy as much), annihilating some or even all of the expected gain from the raised tax; or they will increase the prices of their exports, which we will have to bear since over 90% of the goods we buy are made in China. Did your precious economic model take this into account? But that would make it an actual economic model! That entails telling people the truth! No, we can't have that! Really the only tax that is distortion free is the land value tax. Simple economics is how "anyone (with half a brain) can assume that increased taxation of the major mining companies would hurt Australia". Taxation is like masturbation, while it gives instant gratification, in the end you're only fucking yourself.
If we look at look at the employment % of the mining industry, its really not a lot.
(it's around 1.3% of jobs in Australia).
Theres a unit of measurement known as the Accessible Economic Demonstrated Resources (AEDR), basically the AEDR measures the amount of stuff in the ground we can actually use under current law in Australia. Laws based on various environmental restrictions, the minerals sitting underneath land owned by the the Dept of Defence or other restrictions based on govt policies.
Using the AEDR we can compare the available mineral deposits in Aus compared to other nations. As shown below.
Basically, Aus owns 15% of all known deposits.
This chart shows that Aus is not only a major supplier but also own significant amounts of minerals, which gives us a pretty significant market position.
Now if you view the 2008/2009 profit margin for mining compared to other industries (remembering that mining only employs 1.3% of Australian jobs)
The 11.2% of total industries is the average of all the industries in Australia, so the mining industry takes more than 3x the profit of all other industries by pulling parts of Australia out of the ground.
Theres more information based on mining exploitation if you were to look...Something like the Aus Mining EBITDA (earnings before interest,tax,depreciation and amortisation)/Revenue is 43% while that of mining companies around the world is 30%.
Your claims that china will stop purchasing minerals from Aus is pretty unrealistic. It could have some negative impact on foreign investment in the short term, but its stupid to assume that these nations wont come back for our giant 15% of the world's resources. The only people who would be angered by an increased tax would be the overpaid mining CEOs...But
I'd love to read your source to China opting out on Aus resources or increasing their prices as a result.
More importantly, I really think it's important to acknowledge that an increased tax against the mining industry would equal Funding for long term infrastructure projects, education, future proofing Australia, bigger incentives for Research and development. Equally as important, I think we should try to acknowledge why the over-reaction towards the mining tax has occurred. Mining companies do not add value to their product, they literally pull it out of Australian Soil and claim their product to sell around the world. Why shouldn't all Australians get some benefit considering those resources are fetching astronomical prices...and why should the mining industry get such tax breaks?
It's actually pretty interesting to see the control that the media has on the Australian people. We all saw those ridiculous commercials of workers falling over due to the mining tax...however, we can pretty much see that an increased tax rate on the mining industry would affect none besides the corporate giants who are exploiting the Australian people. If anyone has the time, I really recommend reading Noam Chomsky's
Manufacturing Consent ...it actually got made into a documentary, but I havent watched it yet...The book itself talks about political control through the media, and I've never read such a book that relates so much today as it did during its publication.
Please excuse spelling and grammar...I'm in a rush.
). Now that I think of it, I wonder if they are also tripling the international students fees there (I assume they have these, although are only assuming)?