Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

In voting to keep the mining tax today Labor has demonstrated once again just how anti-Western Australian they are.

Bill Shorten has been deliberately confusing about whether Labor under his leadership supports or opposes the mining tax. 

In Western Australia Bill Shorten set out to create the impression that he was against the mining tax.

Yet in Canberra today Labor voted against the repeal of this anti-Western Australian tax.

What we saw today is that Labor continues to say one thing to win votes in WA only to do the complete opposite when they’re in Canberra.

The mining tax is a complex and distorting tax which was designed by Labor to target Western Australia.

It is bad for the economy, bad for confidence, bad for investment and bad for jobs in Western Australia.

As well as raising most of the revenue from iron ore production in WA, it has tied the important mining industry up in massive, unnecessary and costly red tape.

The impact of Labor's bad taxes is already having a negative impact on jobs in WA.

When Labor was elected to government back in December 2007, the unemployment rate in WA was 3.3 percent.

After Labor's job destroying mining and carbon taxes, unemployment in Western Australia has gone up to 5.9 percent.

Labor had a chance to show today that they support WA and that they support a stronger mining industry to help drive stronger growth and more jobs in WA and nationally. 

Today Labor voted against stronger growth and more jobs.