The claim, made in Australia Institute’s Mining the age of entitlement report released in June, was taken apart by Castalia Strategic Advisors managing director and former NSW treasury secretary Michael Schur.

He found that the Australia Institute grossly exaggerated the level of subsidy to the mining and resources sector and conducted “fundamentally flawed” analysis of state and territory budgets with government subsidies “amounting to no more than a few percentage points of the $17.6 billion claimed by the institute”.

“The Australia Institute has been clearly caught attempting a massive economic fraud to attack the mining industry,” NSWMC CEO Stephen Galilee said.

“This should confirm once and for all that the Australia Institute is an anti­mining campaign organisation masquerading as a think tank.

“The revelation of this $17 billion fraud means that the economic credibility of the Australia Institute is now in tatters.”

“The Australia Institute should now apologise to the hard working miners of NSW and their families for campaigning against their jobs, and drop once and for all their attempts to put working people into unemployment.”

Schur also had some words for the left-leaning organisation.

"Shining a spotlight on corporate welfare is a good thing, Australia can ill­afford it,” he said, with his full report available on the NSWMC website.

“However, the Australia Institute’s claims are based on a flawed analytical framework and are in the main unfounded."

The Australia Institute has not yet responded to the NSWMC/Schur claims on its website.

The Australian Greens party-linked think tank was founded by environmental economist Clive Hamilton.