Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz has warned that the mining sector has too much influence on the political debate on Australia's mining tax.
The former World Bank chief economist drew parallels between the advertising campaign run by the Australian mining industry on the resource rent tax and the US finance industry's ability to water down finance-sector reforms passed by Congress.
"[Australian miners] have been overly influential in shaping the debate," Dr Stiglitz said.
He said that to date the windfall gain from the rise in iron ore had gone disproportionately to the companies, while a disproportionately small fraction had gone to Australian citizens.
''The natural resources belong to the people,'' he said. ''You need to have a well-designed competitive auction to have different companies compete so that companies get the necessary returns to do the investment - but the surplus goes to the Australian people.''
Dr Stiglitz compared efforts by the Labor government to gain a better share of wealth from commodities extracted from Australian soil with a plan proposed in the US when he was lead economic adviser to President Bill Clinton.
His warning comes as the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies restarts an ad campaign aimed at forcing the government to revise its minerals resource rent tax.
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