Mike Nahan ‘agreed on Rio, BHP levy’: Brendon Grylls

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls has suggested Liberal Treasurer Mike Nahan privately backed his mining levy plan.

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls in his home town of Karratha in the seat of Pilbara. Picture: Colin Murty

West Australian Nationals leader Brendon Grylls has suggested that Liberal Treasurer Mike Nahan privately backed a plan to raise $7.2 billion from iron ore miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, a move that would erase the cash-strapped government’s budget­ deficit.

In a sensational claim, he also accused Dr Nahan of not telling the truth earlier this month when he threatened to resign as Treas­urer if the Liberals agreed with Mr Grylls to introduce the levy after next month’s state election.

His comments will heighten tensions between the alliance partners and add fuel to Labor’s claims that a re-elected Liberal-Nationals government will adopt Mr Grylls’s contentious tax policy.

The Nationals want to increase a special lease rental on BHP and Rio Tinto from 25c to $5 a tonne on their Pilbara iron ore product­ion, arguing that the fee has not been increased since the 1960s.

Mr Grylls — who has a fight on his hands to retain his seat of Pilbara­ at the election — says his plan would raise $7.2bn from the companies over four years.

But the miners, who pay billions of dollars in royalties annual­ly on top of the 25c rental fee, are waging a major advertising campaign against the proposed tax in the lead-up to the election.

Mr Grylls said he held talks with Dr Nahan on the levy last year before announcing the policy. He claimed that from those discussions he felt confident the Liberal­ Party would agree to the move after the election.

“You think I wouldn’t have raised this with him (Dr Nahan) privately?” he told The Weekend Australian in an interview in his home town of Karratha in the Pilbar­a.

“I didn’t just imagine all this and think that it was possible. I did my due diligence.”

When asked about Dr Nahan’s threat to resign, Mr Grylls said he did not believe him.

“That’s what he said in an elect­ion campaign,” he said.

The Weekend Australian put the comments to Dr Nahan.

“The Liberal Party does not support an increase in the iron ore tax — I cannot be clearer on that,” the Treasurer said.

Mr Grylls rejected speculation that his public war with the miners had jeopardised his ability to hang on to his seat of Pilbara, a region that has been hit by thousands of job losses since the end of the mining­ construction boom.

A special Newspoll, published in The Australian this month, showed that only 36 per cent of West Australians supported the Nationals’ ­policy and almost half of voters survey­ed were opposed.

Mr Grylls contested Pilbara, a traditional Labor seat, in 2013 and was rewarded with an 18.7 per cent swing.

But the race is expected to be far tighter this year, with Pauline Hanson’s One Natio­n contesting Pilbara alongside Labor and Liberal candidates.

Mr Grylls said Nationals internal polling was showing that he would retain his seat, with Labor finishing second in the primary vote.

“We’ve got 35 per cent support in an environment where millions of dollars are being spent on a mis­information campaign,” he said.

“My polling in regional areas suggests support (for the mining levy) is over 50 per cent in every electorate, including here.”

He denied suggestions that a resurgent One Nation would take votes from the Nationals in regional­ seats across WA.

“Our primary vote will go up, he said.

“The Liberal Party primary vote is the one under pressure. The Liberal primary is down 10 per cent and One Nation is up 10 per cent.”