Prime Minister Julia Gillard has made it a priority on her first full day in the top job to resolve the damaging fight with the mining sector as she tries to regain voter support.
Ms Gillard this morning met with Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson first thing to begin working on a new strategy to resolve the impasse with miners over the proposed resource super profits tax (RSPT).
Having pulled a taxpayer-funded ad blitz selling the RSPT within hours of taking office, Ms Gillard has appealed to Australians to trust her to resolve the impasse which was a major factor in the demise of former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
‘‘The decisions I have made this week have been decisions about profound matters of national interest. They have weighed heavily on me. They were not easy decisions,’’ the Prime Minister said.
Ms Gillard maintained the Rudd government’s line that she wanted to make sure Australians got a fair share of Australia’s mineral wealth but was adamant the negotiations would be genuine and conducted in good faith.
‘‘My priority obviously is to ensure that we deal with the question of the mining tax. It has caused uncertainty. I think that uncertainty has caused anxiety for Australians,’’ she said.
Negotiations on the federal government’s planned resources super profits tax needed to be resolved as ‘‘quickly as possible’’, Ms Gillard said.
The government needed to ‘‘harness the goodwill’’ that has been generated by the mining industry, ‘‘and build on it’’.
‘‘I indicated it strongly yesterday, I’m indicating it strongly today,’’ she said.
She said the government will work through a ‘‘negotiating strategy’’ and report back to the nation on the results when she is in a position to do so.
‘‘When you are negotiating there’s more than you in the room, and so the attitude of others is important to this,’’ she said. ‘‘My view is that this task needs to be undertaken as quickly as possible. We need to work through with goodwill, and we will.’’
Mining shares were trading lower this morning, with Rio Tinto down 93 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $70.80, and BHP Billiton 37 cents lower, or 0.9 per cent, at $39.28 - in line with the falls in the broader market.
AAP