Australia: Scott Driscoll, National President of the United Retail Federation, has confirmed that he is in the planning stages of launching a media campaign to encourage the federal government to reconsider the proposed Mineral Resource Rent Tax, on the grounds it will have substantial flow on impacts to the rest of the economy, including the retail sector.

“The majority of our direct individual members have expressed serious concern via a recent poll conducted by the United Retail Federation, where 90.5% of respondents indicated they believed an increased tax on mining would harm their businesses,” said Mr Driscoll.

“It’s beholden on us to ensure the voice of our grassroots members are heard on such an important issue, as we have done for over 120 years in this country.

“This is not about the opinions of major corporations in CBD boardrooms. This is not about the opinion of chiefs of business banner groups. We haven’t consulted them. We’ve instead spoken to our broad based membership in the suburbs, towns and communities around the country and have listened to them directly.

“Our membership is a broad cross section of the independent retail landscape, from supermarkets, to electrical retailers, toy stores, furniture stores, homewares outlets, just to name a few.

“It’s our hope that the federal government will now also listen to the concerns of retailers and small businesses on this tax and goes back to the table with good will, to ensure the important retail economy is not impacted further by this current mining tax proposal.

Source: http://www.unitedretailfederation.com.au/media_releases/2010