The Federal Opposition has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for politicizing Treasurer Ken Henry to reinforce its campaign on the resource super profits tax for miners.

According to a research pertained by the Government, the mining industry only pays an average of 12 per cent less tax than other sectors, which is considered as “relatively low.”

However, the Opposition argued that Mr. Rudd is manipulating the Treasury to defend his claims.

“The Prime Minister uses Ken Henry in particular to go out in public and argue his case whenever the Prime Minister needs to, and that is reprehensible,” Ian Macfarlane, the opposition spokesperson said.

“Public servants should not be used as cannon fodder by the government to go out and support their cases.”

National Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce has also lambasted Dr. Henry on his actions.

"I worry about Dr Henry and how much he's positioning himself to become a political player and not [giving] frank and fearless advice that's not removed from Government," he said.

"We're now starting to get some major discrepancies between what Treasury is saying under the guidance of Dr Henry and what our own nation's taxation office is saying.”

According to a research paper cited from the Henry tax review, it claims that the mining industry only pays around 12 to 17 per cent tax.
However, mining giants are furious on the claims, stating the real tax take was much higher.

John Ralph, a former BHP chief executive, explained the tax, if applied, will damage Australia's reputation since the expenditure of lending will increase.

"Once you introduce retrospectivity, particularly into into transactions, then you will have sovereign risk priced into all future transactions for quite some time and this has implications for the Australian community," he told media.

Labor representative Jolie Collins defended the government against the mining industry, stating the industry's arguments as “pantomine.”
She said mining companies are finding excuses so they could not pay an extra tax.