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When WA Nationals leader Mia Davies responded to the Government's increases to household fees and charges with a renewed call for a mining tax, it may have prompted some to question her political nous.
After all, the Nationals' proposal to raise a 25 cent per tonne rental fee on iron ore levied against the big miners BHP and Rio Tino to $5 a tonne wasn't exactly a hit with voters at the March poll.
The mining tax plan allowed Brendon Grylls to seize back the party's leadership last year and the proposal was the centrepieces of the Nationals' election campaign.
But come election day it was a disaster, with the party suffering an overall swing against it and Mr Grylls losing his Pilbara seat.
Verbal attacks no deterrent
In the wake of the election, Ms Davies took over the leadership and continued to hold the mining tax line.
Her persistent efforts to attack Labor for not embracing the proposal have led Government MPs to mock her in State Parliament.
Premier Mark McGowan even told Ms Davies: "You need to let it go, Brendon is not here any more."
But that clearly isn't going to happen any time soon, and this was apparent in her response on Thursday to the increased charges for households.
"The Nationals today are calling on the McGowan Government to reconsider the Nationals' policy to talk to Rio Tinto and BHP to increase the special lease rental fee and raise $7.2 billion over the forward estimates," she said.
Despite the mining tax gamble not paying off at the election, Ms Davies appears confident it could still prove to be a winner.
She's hoping four more years of the McGowan Government slugging households with additional fees and charges might just be enough to make voters start to believe a tax on miners is better than another hit on their hip pockets.
In essence she's hoping the community develops an "it's them or me" attitude about who should have to bear the burden of the state's financial woes.
"Now at a point in time when we have a structural deficit this Government is not prepared to sit down and have the hard conversation with Rio Tinto and BHP and ordinary West Australians are asked to pick up the bill," Ms Davies said.
"I do think ordinary West Australians will be looking for a revenue source that means they don't need to bear the brunt of what's happening right now."
Nationals in 'magical mystery world'
Treasurer Ben Wyatt concedes voters are attracted to the idea of "taxing big corporations" but insists a mining tax is not the solution to WA's budgetary woes.
"Let's walk down the magical mystery world of the National Party. Even if they found themselves a multi-billion-dollar revenue source, fees and charges will continue to rise," Mr Wyatt said.
"That's what happened during Mia Davies' time as a Cabinet Minister, she increased them by over 9 per cent for two consecutive years, we've increased them by 7.7 per cent."
The Treasurer on Friday again ruled out giving any consideration to the idea.
"We ruled that out during the election campaign, absolutely," he said.
Ms Davies has a long four years in Opposition ahead of her to continue to prosecute her case to WA voters.
She's already been labelled a "broken record" by the Government for her continued pursuit of the policy but it may well be that come the next election, bill-fatigued voters like the sound of it.
Topics: government-and-politics, nationals, mining-industry, wa