Monoculturalism at your ABC …

Gerard Henderson thinks the ABC guilty of group think …

“The Journos Forum” on 702 yesterday starred Mike Seccombe and Ian McPhedran and Mia Freedman.  Mike agreed with Ian who agreed with Mia that Tony Abbott’s comment that the Mineral Resource Rent Tax and the carbon tax were factors in making Australia less attractive for mineral investment – including the now stalled Olympic Dam project in South Australia – was hopelessly wrong.

According to Mike, Abbott was “wrong quite frankly”.  According to Ian, Abbott was attempting a “total scam and talking nonsense”.  According to Mia, Abbott’s approach was a “disaster”.  No other view was  heard.

And if in fact they are guilty as charged the party line seems to have been set on the 7.30 report the other day …

LEIGH SALES: You were pretty loose with the truth today, weren’t you, when you said that BHP’s decision to put the Olympic Dam project on hold was partly due to the Federal Government’s new taxes?

TONY ABBOTT: Not at all, Leigh. For months BHP have been warning that the carbon tax and the mining tax are making Australia a less competitive place to invest. And Marius Kloppers himself said back in June that the carbon tax and so on are all conspiring to turn Australia from a low cost to a high cost environment.

LEIGH SALES: Well let me read you exactly what Marius Kloppers had to say today …  But, today, if you’re right, then why does it say nowhere in the BHP statement that there’s anything to do with the Federal Government?…

TONY ABBOTT: And, Leigh, they didn’t need to say it today because they’ve said it so often in the recent past.

LEIGH SALES: Well they listed everything else that was to blame.

TONY ABBOTT: You’re not seriously – you’re not seriously telling me, Leigh, that the mining tax and the carbon tax have made Australia an easier place to invest in.

LEIGH SALES: I’m going on the facts that Marius Kloppers said today …

I wonder if the ABC will take note of what Mr. Kloppers said subsequently.

”What I am seeing on the eastern seaboard in Australia is that the coal industry has been very heavily impacted by lower prices, higher operating costs, carbon taxes and increased royalties.”