Let us get back to the reasons dogging BHP Billiton

Let us get back to the reasons dogging BHP Billiton. Because it is important to almost all of our account holders. The first and most obvious reason is the Aussie super resource tax looming. Not a done deal by any stretch. And I suddenly found myself trying to understand the politics of Australia. What I can tell is that labour have wrestled the baton away from the liberals over the last decade and a half. The Aussie Senate seems like having the most delicate of balances right now, check out the Wiki page.



See that, the liberals and labour have 32 seats each. Out of 76. So the others will be the swing voters. So I would say that the current proposal on my limited understanding is not a done deal. What I have been following closely is that all of the Aussie miners are not lying down. Ironically as this Reuters article points out, that could lead to higher mineral prices as miners put projects out of fourth gear and into second gear, threatening expected supply, Australian tax plan shakes up mining industry.



More importantly for the Aussie government mining houses might take defer funds to other projects, that could benefit our continent. Another Reuters piece Miners take Australian tax fight to Canberra. See that one line from an opposition type This is a monstrous action and my expectation is that this won't come to the parliament until next term. My expectation is that it would be either dumped or fundamentally changed.Just a reminder, resource companies make up 8 percent of the Aussie economy, but contribute 40 percent plus in export revenue, plus already pay 18 percent of all taxes in Australia. That is only directly. As you can imagine, being on the other side of the equation we are concerned, but know that this is not a done deal.