In an unprecedented move, two mining companies are being singled out for special tax treatment by Western Australian political party leader Brendon Grylls, who has been officially sworn in as leader of the Western Australian Nationals party. Grylls has ruffled feathers by announcing he wants to introduce a $5/t mining tax on Western Australia’s two biggest iron-ore producers, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, and not other iron-ore mining companies like Fortescue and Hancock. Grylls believes the tax could raise $7.2-billion over four years to return the state budget to surplus. The possibility of a new mining tax is ringing alarm bells because it bears the hallmarks of a previous attempt to impose a special tax on profits earned by iron-ore and coal mining companies. A key difference with the tax mooted by Grylls is that it will only apply to BHP and Rio.