Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. I will continue with my statement. The government clearly know that their mining tax revenue assumptions are dodgy. They clearly know that if their mining tax revenue assumptions were publicly released then they would not stand up to scrutiny. This is, of course, why the government continue to persist with their refusal to release that information.

I remind the Senate in my brief statement of what the Greens said in relation to this about six months ago. Senator Bob Brown was quoted as saying that the lack of infor­mation on the mining tax was increasingly unsatisfactory and:

The time is coming where the Senate is going to have to flex its muscle. If the information is really commercial in-confidence, the Senate committee could meet in-camera, but what the Treasury is in fact saying is that bureaucrats are allowed to have crucial information but parliamentarians, who are being asked to vote on the relevant laws, are not. It is illogical and unacceptable.