And the removal of the $10 billion school bonus was attached to the repeal because the Labor government chose to spend the projected earnings on the bonus as soon as the tax existed. 

But Labor’s projected $16 billion in earnings through the tax was an optimistic figure, Mr Macdonald said. In the first year the tax only generated about $400 million. 

Mr Macdonald said the mining tax hurt the Australian economy because foreign-owned companies were instead choosing to invest in continents like Africa and South America – even though they were more politically unstable. 

The tax was flawed because the Julia Gillard-led government debated with Rio Tinto, Xstrata, and BHP Billiton and through a deal enabled them to not pay the tax. 

He hit back at Green senators’ protests that they could have fixed the mining tax if they had had the opportunity to negotiate with the three mining giants as well.

Mr Macdonald said the Greens had sided with Labor at the time.   

The Greens party accused Mr Macdonald of supporting his “rich mining mates”, but they had not supported the debt levy in the Senate two weeks ago. 

Mr Macdonald also agreed with CuDECO’s logistics manager John Green’s claims that the length of time in capital return in Queensland was among the world’s worst.