Unsurprisingly, the government was able to find $100 million last night to soothe the concerns of the Greens and usher the mining tax through the House of Representatives at 2.42am.
To us, $100 million is a lot of money. To the federal budget, finding the money over five years - $20 million a year - is not even a rounding error.
The government will say today where the money was found. Otherwise it would have suffered endless opposition attacks about a secret deal with the Greens, attacks that have already begun and threaten to overshadow its claims of a significant policy victory.
The last-minute hitch was messy.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who was duchessed by the small miners and the vocal Andrew ''Twiggy'' Forrest, bought the argument that the $50 million profit threshhold at which the mining tax will apply, was too low.
The small miners wanted it lifted to $500 million. Wilkie settled for $75 million, phasing up to $125 million.
It was a pretty useless move. It did not placate the small miners and it irritated the Greens, who have long been angry that the mining tax was so severely watered down in the first place under pressure from the minerals giants.
The Esperence Express
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