Govt`s efforts to sell tax get harder

The federal government has copped a new political setback over its proposed resource
super profits tax with another hand-picked consultant speaking out against it.
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox accepted an invitation in mid-2009 to help the
government devise solutions on tackling long-term unemployment.
But a year on, the billionaire founder of Linfox has criticised the government for
failing to sell its planned resources tax.
"It's very difficult to put special taxes on anybody," he told ABC Television on
Friday.
"You can't just go in for a big bite of money and not have consultation."
The chairman of the federal government's Future Fund, David Murray, has told
Business Spectator the resource tax should be scrapped or abandoned.
Mr Murray, a coalition appointee, said applying the tax to existing projects was
short-sighted.
The comments come just two days after Sir Rod Eddington, the businessman Labor
appointed to head Infrastructure Australia, expressed misgivings about the tax.
Labor is bracing itself for a mining sector-led assault as it gears up for the
upcoming election.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was prepared to take on the loudest critics of the
proposed 40 per cent resource profits tax, including Anglo-Swiss mining giant
Xstrata.
"When you're dealing with some of the very big mining companies around the world,
like Xstrata, it doesn't pay to behave like a pussy cat," he told reporters on
Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
The government has rubbished the claims of Xstrata, which has announced it will
shelve $586 million worth of expansion projects in Queensland because of the tax.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the 3000 jobs reportedly at risk had not
even started yet.
"We're seeing a fear campaign at the moment, we've seen these fear campaigns
before," she told reporters in Sydney.
"I suspect we'll see more claims."
Despite its rhetoric, the government is continuing to struggle, with a Roy Morgan
poll released on Friday showing a two percentage points drop in support for Labor
since late May.
Labor still leads the coalition on a two-party preferred vote - 52.5 to 47.5 per
cent - but it would be returned with a smaller majority if an election was held now.
Punters are expecting the government to call an early election.
Betting agency Centrebet now has Saturday, August 28, as the favourite for a polling
date.
The odds shortened to $6.00, from $7.50, on Friday.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who met with Mr Rudd in Brisbane on Friday, has urged
the federal government and mining companies to "put down the baseball bats" and work
out their differences, as the uncertainty was costing jobs.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Mr Rudd should listen to Ms Bligh.
"Anna Bligh understands; she knows that this has gone beyond a war of words and is
now causing real damage to real people," he told reporters.