Tony Windsor had wanted the minerals resource rent tax to be discussed at a forum held before June 30 next year to revisit the Henry tax review.

However Mr Swan said today the tax would not be on the summit’s agenda because the government was in the process of designing the measure and preparing legislation for parliamentary approval.

Labor was committed to the tax, and a panel chaired by former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus was looking at it in greater depth, he said.

“No, the mining tax is going through the process that we outlined prior to the election,” Mr Swan said.

“We agreed with the mining companies a tax design to produce the MRRT. We then established the Argus committee to work with the industry to further refine the design.”

Mr Windsor seemed at odds with Mr Swan over the issue this morning, as the Coalition seized on the apparent conflict.

“I thought it (the mining tax) was going to be included in any discussions related to the Henry Review,” Mr Windsor told ABC radio. “We may talk about that.”

Mr Swan acknowledged the government needed to win over key crossbenchers in both houses of parliament to have the tax enacted.

He said the government would be discussing the mining tax with the independents anyway because it was legislation that was yet to come before the parliament.

“We will require the support of the parliament in both the House of Representatives the Senate for the MRRT,” he said.

Mr Swan said he had discussed the issue today and in the past with Mr Windsor, saying the MRRT was critical to funding investments in superannuation, regional infrastructure and lower corporate tax.

The Treasurer said elements of the Henry tax review not already agreed to or ruled out would be open for discussion at the summit and stated that when the government responded to the Henry review on May 2 this year, there were many recommendations which it wanted debated further in the next term.

“We are now in that next term of parliament and there will be, and I hope there will be, a very substantial discussion about all of those other recommendations,” he said.

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne this morning accused Labor of “sliding away” from the deal with the country independents by leaving the mining tax out of the summit.

“We’ve already heard this morning Wayne Swan saying that the mining tax will not be part of the tax summit and Tony Windsor saying he thought it was part of the tax summit and part of the deal,” he said.

“So Labor is already sliding away from the deal they made with the country independents. But because they are supporting the wrong party there’s very little they can do about it.”

Mr Pyne also attacked the decision of the two country independents to help Labor form government as an offence against common sense.

Mr Swan paid tribute to the spirit shown by the independents in their discussions with the government and said he would be working with all the independents and minor parties in the parliament regardless of the decisions taken yesterday.

“It’s very important that we do build a consensus behind major reforms, so essential for the future of our country.”

Speaking earlier, the Treasurer remained optimistic about how the new parliament would work and said Ms Gillard was well placed to handle the new legislative challenges the government would face.

“I think one of the lessons the Prime Minister and the government has learnt from the last period in power is that we have to spend more time talking to the community, building that consensus.

“And I believe Prime Minister Gillard is uniquely placed to build that consensus. She did it with the Fair Work Act. She did it with the resolution to the mining tax. And we are going to have to do that again and again, given the numbers in the parliament.”

Source: Joe Kelly/The Australian/September 8, 2010