Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

My question is directed to the Minister for Trade. I refer the minister to the answer he gave in this House on Tuesday to my question about his advance knowledge of the government’s great big new tax on mining when he said:

… of course I was consulted.

How does the minister reconcile this statement with reports today that he ordered his own department to consult better with other departments as he had been ‘surprised’ by the mining tax announcement? Why did the minister tell the parliament that he had been consulted when obviously he had not? Apart from the ‘gang of four’, how senior does a minister have to be before he knows what is going on in this government?

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