In 2010 the Australian federal government fought and lost an intense and very public battle with the country's mining industry over the introduction of a new 'super-profits' tax. The proposed tax was withdrawn and the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was removed from office. Why did the government...

The paper is a reply to David Marsh and Chris Lewis' response to our paper 'The Structural Power of Business and the Power of Ideas: The Strange Case of the Australian Mining Tax'. In this paper, we respond to the points their arguments raise about our theoretical framework and empirical case-study.