Tax the super-rich to fund renewables http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44115

In 2006-07, (the year for which full statistics are available) pre-tax resource industry profits stood at $41 billion and the industry profit margin (pre-tax profits as a proportion of total income) at 35%.If mining super profits in that year had been creamed off to bring the mining industry profit margin to the average (economy-wide) rate of 12.8%, the public purse would have benefited to the tune of $26 billion. That’s 70% of the annual funding needed for energy sustainability.

We should also add in the $2 billion a year that the industry receives in fuel and energy tax exemptions.Despite the orchestrated squealing of the billionaire mining oligarchs, the Labor government’s RSPT won’t be reducing mining industry profitability anything like that much. When the RSPT is in full operation, it is predicted to trim only $9 billion a year off the industry’s profits, between 10% and 15% of the likely total.

Taking the profit share of the Australian economy as a whole, the $36.7 billion BZE estimates is needed for the renewable transition amounts to only 12.7% of the 2008-09 gross operating surplus of corporations operating in Australia. It could be collected by lifting the company tax rate, pursuing corporate tax evasion and imposing a super-profits tax not only on the mining sector, but on the finance sector, in particular the big four banks. These accumulated $22 billion in pre-tax profit in 2008-09, and their return on equity stands around 20%.