Ground control to Major Rudd ...

There are also numerous reports of mining companies turning their attention to Africa in terms of long-term exploration and development.

Macquarie Bank is reportedly advising its clients that Australia was "now seen as being a high sovereign risk destination to invest" and that there was a "significant risk of major capital flight out of Australia".

The Wall Street Journal, in its scathing assessment of Mr Rudd’s super tax, put it succinctly in its editorial, “This economic thinking runs counter to everything that made Australia rich over the last three decades: namely, the embrace of competition and capitalism, which rewards high risk with high returns. … The truth is that all windfall taxes, however they are dressed up and sold by politicians, are arbitrary and economically damaging.”

The Rudd political spin machine also whipped up the old ideological class warfare rhetoric with the Prime Minister portraying mining companies as rapacious foreigners who take away the resources owned by Australians and fail to pay their way while sending profits offshore.

However, Xstrata, for example, pointed out that since it commenced operations in 2002, it had invested $45 billion in Australia exceeding the $44 billion it had earned.

As the CEO Mick Davis said: “And we were planning to continue to invest more in Australia than our operations would have generated. The proposed tax will significantly impair the cash flows available to sustain our operations and has introduced great investment uncertainty.”

Wealth redistribution rather than wealth creation is the Labor way.

The government has indicated that it will “consult” with the mining sector over the design of the super tax, but as Labor heavy weight Graeme Richardson wrote in his book “Whatever it Takes” , standard Labor practice is to consult, consult and consult and then do exactly what it intended in the first place.

The mining companies should not expect any concessions.

The government has already spent the $9 billion per annum it expects to raise from the super tax.

Given his logic that the tax is “good” for the miners, Mr Rudd must be deeply confused as to why no other sector is lining up for an additional 40 per cent tax slug to underpin their future growth.