PM Gillard to Miners: Share the Wealth

“You don't own the minerals. I don't own the minerals. Governments only sell you the right to mine the resource, a resource we hold in trust for a sovereign people.”

This was the message Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered at last night’s annual Parliamentary dinner in Canberra in defence of the working people to whom she is determined to “spread the benefits of the boom.” A hefty population of mining industry investors attended the dinner.

“Our economy is the envy of the world. Our mining industry is the envy of the world. There's nowhere in the world you'd be better off investing. And there's nowhere in the world where mining has a stronger future,” Ms Gillard continued. “And this is Australia, and it has a Labor government.''

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Ms Gillard made a point to commend the hard work of the miners, but also promised to continue her “fight for Australia.”

“They own it and they deserve their share,” she said.

The promise comes one month before the carbon tax is scheduled to take effect, which will tax corporations $23 per tonne of carbon emissions, and a 30 per cent tax on large iron ore and coalmining profits.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott is still adamantly against the implementation of both taxes, but acknowledges that “there are measures associated with both the mining tax and the carbon tax that will be difficult to undo” should a Coalition government take power.