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Truth the first casualty in the War Against Coal

By Graham Young - posted Tuesday, 10 July 2018


The truth is that after sales of goods and services, and payroll tax, coal royalties are the largest contributor of state generated revenue.

The AI set the benchmark on misrepresentation 4 years ago when it claimed that mining is supported by state governments to the tune of $17.6 billion (over 6 years, so the stretch is in on this figure as well, before looking at the facts).

The claim relied on counting capital expenditure on infrastructure, like railways, ports and dams, as subsidies that benefit coal mines, without taking into account that these assets generate an income from the miners. In other words they treat assets as though they were not only liabilities, but expenses.

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The Australia Institute is a malicious meme factory, run by Green extremists, where the main product is not facts, but factoids designed to interact with confirmation bias and motivated thinking to infect mainstream media and metastasise.

I've put up a thousand dollars if they can prove their royalties claim, the AIP could do with the dough, and a financing model worked of the lies of your competitors is an attractive proposition to me, particularly with a crowd as mendacious as this one.

Alas, it's a funding model unlikely to garner much money for lack of a willing counterparty.

But perhaps the ACCC should have a look at whether institutions which use false claims to raise donations should be subject to the Trade Practices Act's penalties against false and misleading conduct.

And the mainstream media should at least do some basic fact checking before putting their claims to air. And, as this is very difficult in the context of a live interview, consider whether they should give them air time at all.

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This article was first published by The Spectator.



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About the Author

Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, an Australian think tank based in Brisbane, and the publisher of On Line Opinion.

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