One person who greeted the repeal of the mining tax with trademark ebullience was Clive Palmer.Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
It was the tax that dared not speak its name, mostly because, well, it didn't actually raise any real money. It is hard to hold your head high when your sole mission in life is to tithe, and instead you end up de-magnetising revenue like a pile of confused iron filings. When you are more laughing stock than levy. When you are unable to support the government spending measures you are supposed to fund, and when even your own father (former treasury boss Ken Henry) wonders publicly if there is any point to your existence at all.
And so, when the mining tax had its blighted life ended on Tuesday in the Senate, few people mourned it. Perhaps its architect, the former treasurer Wayne Swan did – unlike the present treasurer, Mr Swan's facial expressions are inscrutable and it is impossible to know on any given day if he is deeply depressed, mildly annoyed or simply trying to remember the last item on the shopping list he left at home.
This man, Clive Palmer, was always going to vote down the mining tax. He has a vested interest and he said pre election that he was going to do so. He wanted to make a big name for himself and in his eyes he is running the government.