The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has braved Western Australian turf, addressing a group of the state's miners, media, politicians and community members at a press club lunch in Perth city today in an effort to rally support for the fiercely debated RSPT.
The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has braved Western Australian turf, addressing a group of the state's miners, media, politicians and community members at a press club lunch in Perth city today in an effort to rally support for the fiercely debated RSPT.
The prime minister came to WA in a bid to try to shift some of the trenchant opposition to the government's mining super profits tax.
However the prime minister did not receive a round of applause when taking the podium, nor did his offer of increased infrastructure funding insight an expression of approval.
Indeed the first round of applause was for one of the questions put to Mr Rudd by media veteran and 6PR talkback host Howard Sattler.
"I imagine you are a student of political history in this country, has a prime minister in your recollection ever shot a bigger political hole in his foot than you have over the mining tax and the onshore processing of boat people?," Mr Sattler said, bouyed by the first stirring of the crowd.
Consultation, or lack there of, was the topic of the day with many miners attending the luncheon expressing their concerns about the lack of communication between the Rudd government and mining companies.
FMG chief Andrew Forrest said he did not feel he or his fellow miners had been consulted with and nor would they get the chance to consult with Mr Rudd's office.
"The consultation has been non-existent...He has already put the money in the budget, so the consultative review told us this is binary, if we want to change the tax we have to change the government, that was their words to us, so there is no real consultation, you can talk but there is no consultation," he told WA Business News.
In his address Mr Rudd promised the "lions share" of RSPT revenues to WA and Queensland, $6 billion of which will go to funding infrastructure projects across the country.
"Today I can also announce that WA should expect $2 billion in additional infrastructure investment from this fund," Mr Rudd said.
Asked how much room to move there is with the margins in the tax, Mr Rudd confirmed he would not be lowering the tax level.
"We believe we have the rate for this tax right," Mr Rudd said.
His statement that Treasury had put together a "detailed exhaustive modelling of the overall implications of the entire tax reform plan" was met with laughter from the crowd.
AFL jokes abounded as the prime minister addressed the room speaking of his reform to education, health, infrastructure and science before embarking on discussing the hot issue of mining tax.
Mr Rudd referred to the first premier of WA, explorer and geologist Sir John Forrest - FMG chief Andrew Forrest's great uncle - drawing comparisons between himself and Sir Forrest.
"His commitment to using the proceeds of the gold rush to leave a lasting endowment for the whole of WA," Mr Rudd said.
"As his biographer has noted, 'Forrest wanted to make the prosperity of the present pay for the hope for successes of the future. This did not endear him to the gold miners of his time', quote end quote. Somethings do not change."
Mr Forrest questioned Mr Rudd's consultative approach during the question time at the lunch.
"You have only consulted with one lucky member of a union... you consulted two weeks before anyone had even heard of this tax... and lastly of course will you now be consulting with your labor colleagues... about how you have taken your government from having a great chance at winning the next election to not a great chance at all now," Mr Forrest asked Mr Rudd.
In his Press Club address, Mr Rudd announced the government would be directing a "lions share" of the proceeds from the tax back to the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland.
Funds from the tax were already destined to go into infrastructure but the government has signalled the states that are home to the resources will get the lion's share.
"It is not right that the regions and towns producing so much of Australia's wealth should suffer from a poverty of investment," Mr Rudd said.
"It is my intention that the lion share of the infrastructure fund generated by the Resources Super Profits Tax should go to the major resource states of WA and Queensland - consistent with each state's share of total mining production.
"The government will therefore establish a new $6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund."