MINERALS RESOURCE RENT TAX

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (17:30): Supplementary, if I may: given his answer that abolishing the mining tax has no particular relevance to this state, why did the Premier support it in recent months and will he rule out any form of state-based mining tax mechanism or increase to state royalties to offset its abolition?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (17:30): I do not necessarily accept the premise of the question. I cannot remember offering an opinion about the mining tax. I think I have always maintained a position that it is of no particular relevance to South Australia, but I stand corrected if I have expressed a view about this. It has been the national policy of the Australian Labor Party and so, in that sense, it is a matter for my federal colleagues to advance that matter. I do not think we have actually intruded upon that debate, and I think we have always maintained the position that it is of little or no relevance to South Australia, given the minerals that we have here in South Australia.