Tony Crook (O'Connor, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer to the government's mining tax which was negotiated in secret with the three biggest mining companies—BHP, Rio Tinto and Xstrata—to the exclusion of the rest of the industry. In particular I refer to the government's revenue projections which are based on secret data and secret assumptions and which directly contradict industry projections. I ask the Treasurer, firstly: why are you not prepared to guarantee in legislation that the rest of the industry will not pay the tax earlier than the big three? Secondly: why are you not prepared to guarantee in legislation that the rest of the industry will not pay the tax at a higher rate than those big three companies that helped design the tax?

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