habitat July 2012 - Australian Conservation Foundation

New economics
Fair go Swan
How to save two billion polluting dollars and
money at the pump. Report by Ed Butler.
In February, Treasurer Wayne Swan
wrote an essay in The Monthly magazine
titled ‘The 0.01 Per Cent: The Rising
Influence of Vested Interests in Australia’.
Swan pointed out the trouble being
caused in Australia by the increasing
influence wielded by vested interests, and
the growing willingness of these groups
to throw their weight around.
I the closing argument of his essay
Swan invoked that sacred Australian
notion, the ‘fair go’. That ordinary
Australians should not be disadvantaged
because the wealthiest among us feel free
to agitate for their own interests.
This spoke directly to our hearts.
There is an issue that has long been on
ACF’s agenda, one that could have been
exactly what the Treasurer was on about;
the nearly $2 billion taxpayers spend
annually on fuel rebates for mining
companies.
One of the ‘dirty dozen’ handouts to
polluting industries that ACF has targeted
in the past, the fuel tax credits scheme
was originally intended to support the
export industry, but morphed into a
handy, and profitable, tax write-off for mining companies. Each
year, this handout grows bigger as the mining boom increases the
amount they drive their trucks. Meanwhile, ordinary Australians
continue to pay 38 cents per litre every time they pull up to
the pump.
With a fair go on the national agenda, and with the government
intent on delivering a surplus in this year’s budget, we decided to
strike while the iron was hot. Scrap the $2 billion annual handout,
and help return the budget to surplus in a way that doesn’t harm
ordinary Australians.
While making the (relatively easy) case that this is simply bad
policy that does nothing to change corporate behaviour while
mining taxpayers’ wallets, it was also important to get some
evidence that Australians were as fed up with these handouts as
we were. So we decided to put a poll in the field.
To pay for it, we asked our wonderful supporters for a leg-up.
We asked for $2000 to pay for polling to gauge national attitudes
towards the handout.
What we got blew us away.
After four days, the generosity of ACF’s members and
supporters meant that we had raised not only enough for polling
but a full-page ad in our national broadsheet newspaper. Clearly
we had touched a nerve.
It got better; when the polling results came back, they showed
that over 90 per cent of respondents felt that the $2 billion would
be better spent on important services like
health and education, and 77 per cent felt
that the handout should be scrapped entirely.
Emboldened, we published a full-page
ad in The Australian. We chose this paper as
we wanted to represent independent polling
and be sure Swan took notice. The ad took
the form of an open email to the Treasurer,
suggesting that we had a neat solution for
his surplus challenge, a solution that would
help the environment no end. And what’s
more, it was popular.
We also delivered a petition of over 1,100
signatures to Wayne Swan, pressing home
the desire among the public for change to
this wasteful policy.
Meanwhile, our campaigners spoke
to politicians in Canberra, our thinkers
wrote opinion pieces that appeared in The
Canberra Times, The Punch and The Drum,
and the polling results received coverage
across almost all of the country’s major
newspapers. Momentum was building.
So much so that the Minerals Council
of Australia felt compelled to take out
their own ads in The Australian and The
Australian Financial Review for several days (far outspending the
wildest ambitions of environmental groups), directly attacking
ACF’s claims.
If ever we needed evidence that the miners were not on solid
ground, it was this. If the policy made economic sense, there
would be no need to spend tens of thousands defending it.
Come federal budget night, our economic guru Simon
O’Connor, and our director of strategic ideas, Chuck Berger,
entered the budget ‘lock-up’ to see the results. Unfortunately,
the MCA’s scare campaign appeared to work, and the $2 billion
handout remains.
In a year when the foreign aid budget was cut by $2.9 billion,
it was sad to see forecasts of the mining handout increase to $9.4
billion over the coming four years, as mining investments continue
to accelerate. To put $9.4 billion in perspective, it’s $4,480 per
minute that taxpayers are handing over to mining companies so
they can drive trucks more cheaply.
Despite the setback, we still hold out hope on the handout
to mining companies. With global economic uncertainty, and a
watered-down mining tax providing diminishing revenue to the
government, there could be further pressure on the balance sheet
in future.
If that happens, and the government needs savings, ACF will be
out in front on this, gently reminding our representatives how they
could save $2 billion a year.
For more information visit www.acfonline.org.au/fairgo
14 habitat July 2012