Since the RSPT’s unveiling on May 2 in the federal budget, Rudd has paid lip-service to the idea of consulting with miners over the practicalities of the tax.

Initially it was a flying visit to Perth for dinner with the likes of Twiggy Forrest and Sam Walsh.

Now it consists of a taxpayer-funded $A38 million advertising campaign to explain how the super tax will make Australia’s taxation system “simpler and fairer for everyone”

It is an audacious pitch, given that the only people who understand the intricacies of the RSPT are its architect, Ken Henry, and a couple of Sydney academics.

How such a convoluted, backdated and poorly structured tax makes life simpler is a question that continues to baffle the Metal Detective.

It would be nice if the government bothered to genuinely engage with the industry, rather than launching a website and trotting out feel-good statements in blatantly political ads.

As has been well documented, Rudd’s attack on one of Australia’s champion industries is farcical in the damage it has done to the country’s investment reputation overseas. It has delivered a free kick to competitors such as Canada.

At home, the bungled policy has severely damaged Rudd’s political stocks, while galvanising miners into becoming a potent quasi-opposition party ahead of the next election.

“It has unified the industry like I’ve never seen with another issue,” one senior mining executive said.

“Better than industrial relations, better than ETS – there is total opposition, big, medium and small.

“And the small guys are saying, ‘If I do make a discovery, the big guys aren’t going to invest in me, because of the uncertainty’.”

The unfortunate thing about Rudd’s policy is that a tax on profits could have been palatable, in the right format.

“I don’t think there is any resources company that doesn’t mind paying a profit-based levy,” the mining executive said.

“But it has to be at a modest level and of course it has to be prospective [rather than retrospective].”

Rudd and his ministers have dismissed the industry’s reaction as “hysterical”, but what does he expect when a terrible policy is lumped on an industry with no prior notice?

“We were blind-sided,” says the executive. “BHP and Rio, in particular, thought that they had close relationships with the government, but they got run over by a train.”

The big miners will fight back Wednesday via the Minerals Council of Australia’s one-day seminar, followed by the annual dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House.

Senior BHP and Rio executives will be there to hear speakers such as Sir Rod Eddington, the former British Airways chief and now Rio director.

Rio’s former CEO Leigh Clifford, now Qantas chairman, will also be speaking at the event.

Conspicuous by his absence will be the prime minister, who would traditionally address the dinner.

Rudd, missing a perfectly good opportunity to “consult” with the miners, will instead attend a Labor Party function – nicely illustrating where his priorities lie.

This year Rudd has deputised Martin Ferguson to attend, though the resources minister isn’t expected to make a speech.

He will just be there to soak up the happy atmosphere.

On the other side of the country, Perth is hosting the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ annual convention, which starts today.

The first morning includes a “panel discussion” on the RSPT, featuring AMEC CEO Simon Bennison and Atlas Iron CEO Dave Flanagan, alongside accounting and media experts.

Invitations were issued to government and Treasury representatives but, alas, AMEC was unable to convince anyone from Canberra to explain why RSPT is such a good idea.

It is a pity, given the government has said that its tax changes will specifically assist Australian exploration companies via the $1.1 billion resource exploration rebate.

The rebate – which will provide a refundable tax offset for eligible exploration expenses from July 1, 2011 – will be simpler than the industry’s favoured flow-through shares scheme, the government argues.

That doesn’t wash with AMEC, which has roundly criticised the tax as a flawed policy that doesn’t do explorers any favours.

“We are making it clear that we want to go back to the [negotiating] table and start with a clean slate,” Bennison told MD.

The rebate has also been ridiculed by the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, which says the likely negative impact of the RSPT will remove much of the incentive for investment in mineral exploration, “making it more difficult for exploration companies to raise funds”

“This dramatic reduction in incentive for investment will not be compensated for by any exploration tax rebate scheme,” AIG vice-president Andrew Waltho said.

At the AMEC convention, Bennison is expecting 650 delegates sourced from miners, service providers, investors, commodities traders and offtake partners.

Given the widespread anger at the RSPT, it should be a lively gathering, with delegates having three days to vent their feelings.

Unfortunately, nobody from the Rudd government will be there to listen, so it may be like preaching to the converted.

*Metal Detective is a weekly column on ILN’s sister publication MiningNews.net.