Kevin Rudd pictured at the height of the mining tax fight/. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen Source: The Australian
KEVIN Rudd has had a go at the Australian Greens for seeking a renegotiation of the mining tax.
Greens leader Christine Milne said yesterday that Labor should revert to the previous planned mining tax to find $26 billion in revenue over the next four years, instead of the projected $9 billion.
But Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would not be taking advice from anyone about a tax that was already in place.
Her predecessor Mr Rudd had proposed a resources super profits tax (RSPT) in May 2010, but that was changed to the Mining Resources Revenue Tax (MRRT) after he lost the prime ministership a month later.
He said it was a "bit opportunistic" of the Greens to join this debate.
"I seem to remember that we would have had an earlier, more effective solution to critical challenges such as climate change had the Greens, as a matter of principle, stuck to their principles and backed an emissions trading scheme (ETS) back when I was prime minister," Mr Rudd told Sky News this morning.
"We would have had avoided two years of rancorous debate and we could have got on with the rest of the agenda."
Greens senator Richard Di Natale stood by his party's opposition to Mr Rudd's ETS, saying it would have locked in failure.
Greens leader Christine Milne has said the PM must renegotiate the mining tax to generate more revenue.
"We've got a much better scheme in place," Senator Di Natale told the Network Ten this morning.
"We've got $10 billion for renewable energy, we've got an authority to review our targets (and) we're not going to lock in failure under the old Kevin Rudd scheme."
Mr Rudd dumped Labor's proposed ETS in April 2010, after the bill was rejected twice in the Senate by the coalition and the Greens.
A price on carbon emissions became operational on July 1 this year after Labor negotiated a carbon price as part of its agreement with the Greens to form government following the 2010 election.
The new mining tax has been reported to have yielded no revenue for the first quarter but Mr Rudd said judgment should be held off until the end of the 2012/13 financial year.
"Let's wait and see what the full financial year yields from the current MRRT before we are rushed to conclusions on this," he said.
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