March 19, 2012

I rise to speak on the Mining Tax bills with mixed feelings. This comes partly from being a Western Australian Senator. Dealing with these bills has exposed the degree to which Canberra views my state as little more than a lucrative and ever expanding hole in the ground. I want to set one myth to rest at the outset: the idea that the support of the Greens for fair taxation of this industry means we are anti-mining. Of course we are no such thing – a big wind turbine, perhaps for many people the symbol of the transition that