Two weeks after putting in a joint offer to save the Mt Isa smelter, it looks like the Queensland and federal governments have agreed on terms for a taxpayer funded bail out of the Glencore copper smelter.
AAP reports:
Swiss mining giant Glencore looks set to get a taxpayer funded bailout to save an ailing smelter, potentially saving hundreds of jobs.
Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres will be in Mount Isa in north Queensland on Wednesday for an event at 1130am AEDT before heading to Townsville for another event at 3.30pm AEDT.
He is likely to be joined by Queensland Resources Minister Dale Last.
In July, Glencore closed its underground copper mine at Mt Isa, with a loss of almost 500 direct jobs.
It also warned it was preparing to put the nearby copper smelter and its Townsville copper refinery into care and maintenance until market conditions improved.
Glencore had said the assets were losing money and forecast a $2.2 billion loss over the next seven years.
7 Comments
Do we have any idea when all of these companies that continually get government handouts will actually pay any meaningful tax? I probably pay more tax than Glencore at this stage.
I don't think you'd be wrong, Andrew. There are so many options for the government to properly tax these multinationals, but apparently the only meaningful government intervention seems to come in the form of a bail out
Amy you know he's wrong
The miners are one of the biggest taxpayers in Australia, which you would have seen last week if you read actual news and not just amys blog. For example glencore is the 10th largest taxpayer in the country: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/singtel-rings-up-no-tax-as-miners-and-banks-support-the-budget-20251001-p5mzdw.html
Hello friend, given you seem worried about this, here are some more facts for you:
Yes, miners are one of the biggest taxpayers, because shock, they are with banks the biggest profit sector in Australia.
Glencore Investments is the 10th largest taxpayer – paying $1.9bn tax on $31.6bn revenue and $7.9bn taxable income, but Glencore Holding, which had revenue of $4.3bn paid $0 tax. And to be honest that is not a surprise, given Glencore holdings has not paid tax since 2019-20 and in the 4 years from 2020-21 to 2023-24 it had $24.3bn in total revenue and an astonishing $27.8bn in taxable income and yet it paid $0 tax!
And while Glencore Investment paid tax, what about Santos Ltd? It had $8.3bn in revenue, and yet $0 taxable income and paid $0 tax. Again, not a shock. Santos ltd hasn’t paid tax for a decade – despite taking in $43.3bn in revenue – guess it must keep losing money and have no profit to declare? Weirdly, though Santos told investors in 2023 it made $1.432bn in underlying profit and in 2024 the profit was $1.2bn.
Yes, iron ore companies pay a lot of tax – Rio Tinto and BHP especially. Good for them. But gas companies like AGL, ICHTYS, Inpex, and Chevron are notorious for paying negligible or no tax. And we will call that out.
We're not talking about santos we're talking about glencore. Andrew said that he reckons he pays more tax then glencore, and you said you think hes right. whataboutism
Hi Shoe - I am enjoying the change in email addresses as you make this case. Glencore was addressed: "paying $1.9bn tax on $31.6bn revenue and $7.9bn taxable income, but Glencore Holding, which had revenue of $4.3bn paid $0 tax. And to be honest that is not a surprise, given Glencore holdings has not paid tax since 2019-20 and in the 4 years from 2020-21 to 2023-24 it had $24.3bn in total revenue and an astonishing $27.8bn in taxable income and yet it paid $0 tax!"
If you think its right they get a taxpayer funded bailout, despite its revenue, then that's OK - that's your belief and of course I'm not going to tell you what to believe. Andrew was making a broader point, as a taxpayer, and I think you know that.