Bob Brown, Australian senator, and Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens, has proposed a 'bigger' mining tax to fund education to the tune of an extra $2 billion to be pumped into public schools and universities.
Senator Brown said that even if the mining tax was not returned to its original 40% the Greens will not block the Labor government's current version of the tax. They would just negotiate that the funding for educational projects was not rolled back.
At the National Press Club in Canberra Senator Brown said in his address that he would fight the expansion of the coal seam gas industry particularly in the food production areas such as the Darling Downs in Queensland. He was also likely to back light rail and establish a parliamentary budget office to provide economic and budgetary advice to the parliament.
The upbeat Greens are expected to hold the balance of power in the Senate after the elections on Saturday. In fact if Adam Bandt wins the seat of Melbourne they could also gain their second ever lower house member.
At a community forum in Brisbane Tony Abbott the opposition leader went so far as to say that Senator Brown will be an unofficial cabinet minister in the Labor government.