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April 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
Tax fight: Fortescue Metals Group chief Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest said he attacked the Gillard government because he feared for Australia’s long-term budget. Picture: Ray Strange
Source: The Australian
ANDREW “Twiggy” Forrest has said his recent attacks on the government have been prompted by fears of “ignorant tax moves”.
Mr Forrest said his public attacks on Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan have been prompted by his belief they would be putting the federal budget into ruin for two decades.
The new attack by Mr Forrest, whose personal wealth is estimated to be about $6 billion, follows public charges in recent weeks alleging a secret deal in 2010 between Ms Gillard and Mr Swan and the major miners to water down former PM Kevin Rudd’s mining tax behind his back.
Mr Forrest said the mining industry was now being hit by the proposed removal of rebates for diesel fuel, removing mining overburden and depreciation of assets in a cynical move to shore up a manufactured budget surplus.
Speaking during a press tour of Fortescue Metals’ mining sites, he said he feared a repeat of the “ambush of the resources super profit tax” of 2010.
“There are a number of absolutely ignorant tax moves, which would shore up the budget for one to two years then ruin (it) the next one to two decades,” he told reporters.
“(In 2010) I had a treasurer prepared to ambush his greatest raft of taxpayers in an act of desperation, I didn’t want to see a repeat of that.
“I cannot look through the prism of corporate eyes in what I do now … When I see political leadership acting against Australia interests, ensuring that the richest survive and doing ‘whatever it takes to stay in power’, I know the health of the country’s economy is at stake.”
The comments come ahead of Mr Forrest’s National Press Club address this week, where he will talk about the disparity between indigenous people and mainstream Australia.
“I informed the previous prime minister I was going to go public … I just informed him that I had reached a stage in my life that I was not going to bury this,” he said of Kevin Rudd.
He said he would not negotiate with Ms Gillard or Mr Swan on mining tax issues.
He described the period as the lowest and blackest point ever in Australian politics.
While Mr Forrest vehemently opposed the original mining tax at the time, he now lauds it as a “missed economy transforming opportunity”, because it would have raised billions of dollars in tax revenue that giants BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, along with Fortescue, are largely exempt from.
The federal government says the mining resource rent tax (MRRT) will raise $10.6 billion over three years, but the mining industry disagrees, with Mr Forrest predicting a $9 billion hole unless iron ore prices spike sharply.
Mr Swan’s office pointed to comments he made in response to Mr Forrest last week in which he accused Mr Forrest of peddling conspiracy theories.
“We’ve got an MRRT in place, a resource rent tax which provides the opportunity to give significant tax cuts to Australian small businesses and also to boost the superannuation savings of our workforce,” he said.
“We got it done. There will be all sorts of claims and counter-claims. I mean, Mr Forrest’s company admitted last year that it hadn’t paid any company tax.”
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