From Calgary to Canberra: Resource Taxation and Fiscal Federalism in Canada and Australia

Fiscal federalism in the twenty-first century

“…Additionally, countries were affected in different ways depending on the nature of their economic structure and engagement with the global economy. For example, Germany and Switzerland's respective financial sectors suffered due to significant exposure to US securities ; Australia and Canada were largely insulated from the downturn by their commodity exports (Eccleston and Woolley 2014); and India experienced the crisis through reduced demand for its exported goods and services and a decrease in remittance inflows (Ghosh and Chandrasekhar 2009, pp. 728-9); meanwhile Brazil suffered from the disruption of international credit markets and a consequent drop in investment (Fardoust and Ravishankar 2013, p. 18).…”

The socio-spatial politics of royalties and their distribution: A case study of the Surat Basin, Queensland

“…As such, royalties represent partial compensation for the alienation of the public's natural capital, which, along with taxes, serve to cover the costs governments bear in the management of the myriad aspects of the extraction process. For those jurisdictions fortunate enough to possess lucrative stocks of natural resources within their administrative boundaries, royalties can also be a source of considerable wealth, and form a substantial plank in the territorial economic base (Eccleston and Woolley, 2014). The levying and re-distribution of royalties, at a range of geopolitical and geographical scales, is therefore a significant public policy issue.…”

“…The intra-state deployment of royalty payments – or funds derived from royalties – is a relatively understudied topic (though see Markey et al, 2019; Ryser et al, 2019). Payments by the state to regions and localities of resource extraction can be justified for a range of reasons, including compensation for the damages and disruption caused in the process of mineral and energy exploration and extraction or the shoring up of a vulnerable political constituency (Eccleston and Woolley, 2014). As noted by others (Bugden et al, 2017; Measham et al, 2019), few forms of industrial development have the capacity to so rapidly and radically transform a physical landscape as the mineral and energy extraction sectors.…”

Fixing Funding in the Australian Federation: Issues and Options for State Tax Reform

“…This boost in national income not only enabled Australia to avoid a crisis-related recession but has also had a profound impact on the politics of intergovernmental financial relations in the Australian federation due to the uneven distribution of economic growth associated with the resources boom across the states. Because Australian states have the right to impose taxes and royalties on terrestrial mining operations, the millennium resources boom delivered significant revenue growth to resource-rich states, whereas non-resource-rich states experienced few revenue gains whilst having to contend with the economic challenges arising from a historically high exchange rate and relatively high interest rates (Eccleston and Woolley 2014). This has resulted in what commentators have described as a 'two-speed economy', which, in line with the experience in other federal systems, has exacerbated horizontal political tensions between states on issues such as the distribution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), making the task of building a nationwide consensus on the need for state funding reform all the more difficult (Benz and Broschek 2013;Cleary 2011;GST Distribution Review 2012).…”