Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, do you want me to answer the question or are you going to keep talking as always? I am happy, Senator, to try to answer the question. Mr President, the senator makes the point that it is very different information being contemplated. But it was perhaps the information which Mr Barnett, the Liberal Premier of Western Australia, used when he sought to increase royalties paid by those mining companies. In the middle of the mining tax debate, the Liberal Premier moved to gouge extra royalties out of those mining companies, which is seemingly inconsistent with the proposition that the federal Liberal party was advancing at the time. But it does not suit Senator Cormann to admit to that in this current climate.