Labor finds strange MRRT bedfellows

Behind-the-scenes lobbying over the final shape of the government's mineral resources rent tax is intensifying, with the government feeling the squeeze from competing forces on the crossbenches.

Getting this tax before parliament by the end of the year, in a form that will pass, is far from assured, with WA independent Tony Crook spearheading cross-bench opposition, and NSW independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor mumbling they might fall in behind him.

Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie, who recently toured mining regions with Crook, has denied any link between his lobbying for a better deal for smaller miners and his other major legislative project – his do-or-die attempt to introduce mandatory precommitment for poker machines. But even if he is not courting Crook's support on pokie reform, as he claims, he remains a significant potential obstacle to the smooth passage of the legislation.

On the other side of this squeeze, the Greens not only want the current legislation to sail through parliament, but are threatening their own amendments to increase the revenue take of the tax. The party's lone voice in the lower house, Adam Bandt, suggested yesterday that Senate amendments to add gold to the tax – currently it only covers coal and iron ore – or simply increase the effective 23 per cent tax rate, would be moved by the Greens if too much jiggery-pokery dilutes the tax in the House of Representatives.

So on the one hand, the government has the wavering independent crossbenchers being coaxed by Tony Crook to lessen the blow for smaller miners – such as Fortescue Metals, whose chief executive Andrew Forrest has led several lobbying assaults on Canberra – and on the other, the Greens are saying, in effect, 'get this through quickly before we take a harder socialist turn'.

The government needs some new friends on this legislation, and has found them in surprising quarters.

First comes potential support from maverick Liberal MP Mal Washer, who told the Sydney Morning Herald: "'I could potentially support a mining tax if it is reasonable because we need to take some profits out of the mining industry to assist industries that are struggling in this country ... [but] I don't have enough details yet to decide whether I will cross the floor."

Washer has twice upset his party leadership on major issues. In 2004 he defied the wishes of Prime Minister Howard by seconding a private members bill to ban political donations from tobacco companies, and in 2006 he led a backbench revolt to allow a conscience vote which lead to the passing of highly controversial legislation to allow embryonic cloning for therapeutic purposes.

During the cloning debate, Washer weathered intense lobbying from inside the Liberal Party (and the Labor right) as well as public attacks by some church leaders – the kind of stoic performance that pretty much guarantees he'll be his own man on the MRRT.

Another thorn in the side of the Coalition – which has vowed to repeal the mining tax in government – is the man for whom the term 'maverick' was pretty much invented: Bob Katter.

He told The Australian: "I'd like to think my truculent opposition was on the basis of base metals... I have to say that the government has a very strong case if it's confined to iron ore and coal."

In recent months Katter has hinted that he'd be keen to do a bit more business with Labor if his old Queensland mate Kevin Rudd was in charge, but seems to have forgotten it was Rudd who floated the widely criticised resource super profits tax, and that it was that tax that did Rudd in.

Meanwhile, it's not surprising to see WA Premier Colin Barnett panning the mining tax at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth yesterday. News Ltd media report that Barnett, whose every word and gesture seems as much directed towards a Beijing audience as towards WA voters, labelled the tax the most "inept" piece of public policy he's seen in 30 years of public service, and called it a "thinly veiled attempt to assume control of the mining industry”.

That should please Beijing even more than calls from WA Mines Minister Norman Moore earlier this year for WA to not only secede from the rest of Australia, but to contract out its defence to China (Let's get serious about people power, July 15).

Whether or not Barnett's assessment of the tax is fair, it is nonetheless being seriously considered by Katter and Washer. Moreover, both Windsor and Oakshott have proven to be better at threatening to vote against Labor than actually doing so.

Despite all the horsetrading, some kind of crossbench or opposition coalition looks likely to get this bill over the line – though it may not be in time for Julia Gillard to toast at this year's Christmas party.