PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Newly appointed federal Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray has ruled out the possibility of restructuring the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT).
“We are not about doing that,” Gray told ABC radio on Tuesday.
“The mining sector nowadays pays more to the state and federal coffers than ever before and that’s a good thing.”
The federal government has been facing pressure from the Greens after the tax raised only A$126-million over the first two quarters of the 2012/13 financial year.
A Senate Inquiry Committee into the mining tax was launched earlier this year to look at the design of the MRRT and its implication for the federal budget.
Gray was appointed to the Resources and Energy portfolio after Martin Ferguson resigned from Cabinet following a near-coup by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
During his departure, Ferguson’s comments suggested that the federal government’s approach to the implementation of the MRRT could have been faulty.
However, Gray on Tuesday dismissed criticism from Ferguson, saying he was responding more to emotion than understanding.