Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

And as I have said previously—and this is an interesting little game of ping-pong across the chamber—I talk to companies on a regular basis and I have no intentions of disclosing publicly what they have talked to me about confidentially. I have had very clear feedback from a number of companies that they are not intending to put their hand up publicly because of the huge pressure being placed upon them by certain mining companies in Australia and certain peak councils representing the mining industry. It is not merely pressure to say nothing publicly; there is also significant pressure to donate significant amounts of money to fund the campaign against the government.

I do read the media. I do not always believe them, and perhaps I might be wrong on this, but I read an article in a national daily yesterday which referred to significant fundraising efforts out of the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party relating to the current campaign against the government on the proposal to significantly change and reform the Australian taxation system. It spoke about the view in the Liberal caucus that their deputy leader has not always been that relevant to the future of the coalition. One has said that the member for Curtin ‘has finally found her place in the sun’. There is a report on her good connections to the mining industry in Western Australia—

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