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“The importance of mining to Australia has never been more evident than during the 2020/21 financial year, a time in which I am immensely proud of Atlas and our people and their contribution to safeguarding the economic prosperity of West Australia and Australia,” Ms Rinehart said. “The mining industries and the businesses they support help to support millions of Australians right across the country. “When mining does well, so does Australia. We just have to remember that Australia exports its ore internationally, so we have to be cost competitive internationally, hence we should be wary of onerous government cost burdens, that don’t encourage investment.

But Mr Littleproud, said the proposal was dangerous and didn’t make sense. He said diesel users who didn’t use public roads should not have to fork out the excise to pay for maintaining them. “Why would you constrain an industry? Why would you take away its competitiveness and effectively take away its jobs? “And while Twiggy might be able to afford it, I don’t know whether every Australian out there that’s employed by some of these other industries can afford it and will want to see their jobs go because we’re not competitive.” Miners and farmers also slammed the proposal, saying it would cost investment and jobs because there is no widely available substitute fuel to power their operations.

“Fuel tax credits exist to fix a serious distortion in the tax system,” Mr Mahar said. “Taxing farmers every time they start their tractor, pump or generator makes no sense. The proposal would apply a road user charge to fuel use that happens off-road in the paddock, on the water or even in hospitals. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud also ridiculed the idea and said the government had “no means in which we’re considering removing the fuel excise rebate.” “Twiggy Forrest is giving plenty of gratuitous advice from the sidelines and he’s been running around the world cashing a lot of Fortescue checks on hydrogen,” Mr Littleproud said.