Bob should be mischievous


Reading in today’s Financial Reviewhow the BHP lobbyist Geoff Walsh, a former Bob Hawke adviser and ALP federal secretary, played such an intriguing role in the removal of Kevin Rudd should be enough to get Greens leader Bob Brown into a mischievous mood when it comes to making his election promises.
Why not hold out the prospect of not supporting the Julia Gillard cave-in of a compromise on taxing the major miners and holding out instead to sticking with the original proposal? Let any future Labor Government have to renege on its agreement with the miners or have no new mining tax revenue at all.
One thing for certain is that such an approach would put the Coalition leader Tony Abbott (or more likely his successor) in a difficult position. It could either break its promise to oppose Labor’s big new tax altogether or in fact be responsible for the miners paying more as a Labor Government, and the miners,  realised that because of the likely numbers in a new Senate Australia will continue to have a minority government.

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