Prime Minister Tony Abbott has labelled the mining and carbon taxes as “anti Western Australian “ he as he tries to secure the resource vote ahead of the April 5 Senate election.
Western Australian senate votes from the September Federal Election will he held again after being found void by the by the High Court after 1,400 ballots disappeared during a vote recount.
Abbott was among other politicians including Labor leader Bill Shorten, his deputy Tanya Plibersek and Greens leader Christine Milne, who were in Perth yesterday spruiking their parties.
An opponent of the mining and carbon taxes since their inception, Abbott has already pledged to abolish the taxes when the new Senate comes into term after July 1.
However after securing three Senate positions in WA at the September elections, the Liberals are now in danger of losing one which would make passing legislation in the Senate difficult.
“The election is important because the result will make it easier or harder to get rid of anti WA taxes like the carbon or mining taxes,” he said.
"It's very important that we get rid of anti Western Australian taxes.
"They're only there still because the Labor Party and the Greens voted together, as they always do … to keep them."
Abbott told reporters minor parties make it harder for the government to do its jobs, 7 News reported.
“Minor parties are much better at attracting media attention rather than getting things done,” he said.
“Don’t vote for a minor party and in particular don’t vote for a minor party that is going to be constantly with the Opposition."
The Prime Minister’s comments come after revelations this week the mining tax had again failed to bring in the substantial revenue promised, despite a bumper year for iron ore producers.
The tax has raised just $232 million this financial year, a huge deficit on the expected revenues of $4 billion originally forecast when the tax was introduced in 2011.
The low taking come as Australia’s three major miners BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group made a total half-year profit of more than $US14.58bn from their West Australian iron ore operations.
It is expected the Coalition will win the support of crossbench votes to scrap the tax with The Palmer United Party, Democratic Labour Party, Liberal Democratic Party and Family First all in support of repealing the MRRT.