The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

SMH's Peter Martin: Get the Government to do a Rismark on the RSPT...

Today the SMH's Peter Martin has come up with a great idea to resolve the RSPT debate. He proposes that instead of the Government stuffing about with future "tax offsets" (ie, an IOU to the industry if their projects go cactus), it should contribute to the project costs upfront as a silent equity partner in exchange for its future share of the profits. This directly addresses the mining industry's concerns about the government's 40 per cent donwside sharing. In his article, Peter refers to Rismark's shared equity product that is provided by Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. One quibble I have with this is that I would not make it optional: it should be imposed on the industry at large. Anyway, it's a solid idea that should be explored further.
at 1:51 PM