Labor Ministers seem incapable of understanding the details of their own portfolios.
In regards to the slicing up of Labor’s mining tax into a Regional Infrastructure Fund, Simon Crean has been reported yesterday as saying that:
We're not allocating it on a proportional basis by region.*
That seems quite at odds with a statement in a presentation Simon Crean made only 3 weeks ago, where he described the mining tax infrastructure fund as a:
$6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund, including $2 billion, $2 billion for WA … 1
If a third of the fund is allocated to both Queensland and Western Australia can Simon Crean explain how that is not “allocated on a proportional basis”?
It is also at odds with the policy that Labor took to the election.
On 30 July 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated that:
That is why Federal Labor will invest more than $2 billion in WA infrastructure from the Regional Infrastructure Fund … 2
That is why Federal Labor will invest more than $2 billion in QLD infrastructure from the Regional Infrastructure Fund … 3
Labor needs to come clean with the people of Queensland and Western Australia and confirm whether their election commitments stand.
The mining tax is likely to rip $30 billion out of the Queensland and Western Australian economies. Returning $4 billion is hardly a great deal but it looks like Labor is now even turning their backs on this.