Henry is not an oracle, Hockey says

Ken Henry's days as Treasury secretary would appear to be numbered if the coalition
gains power in this year's federal election.
Dr Henry's second term in the top job in Treasury ends next year.
The architect of the Rudd government's stimulus measures and the Henry tax review -
which unleashed the controversial 40 per cent resources super-profits tax - has come
in for much criticism since the coalition went into opposition.
Dr Henry has also been attacked for the Treasury's economic forecasts and even the
timing of his holidays.
This was the man who was reappointed for a five-year term in 2006 by former prime
minister John Howard.
"I express my continuing appreciation of Dr Henry's contribution to this important
department," Mr Howard said at the time.
How times have changed.
Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey was repeatedly quizzed about the future of
Dr Henry during his budget response address to the National Press Club in Canberra
on Wednesday.
While he had always got on well with Dr Henry, Mr Hockey said, "there is no single
person that is the oracle".
"I know that's very hard to believe, especially in Canberra, but guys there is no
single person that always gets it right," he said.
Neither should it be assumed that Dr Henry would stay on beyond next year if the
government won the election, because it had shown a lack of courage on tax reform,
Mr Hockey said.
Out of 138 recommendations in the tax review, the government had implemented just
two and a half, and instead of cutting taxes as promised, there were now 100 federal
taxes rather than 99, he said.
The 100th is the Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT).
"I think Dr Henry would be so upset at the lack of courage at the government in
implementing his tax reforms that he probably wouldn't want to stay if the Rudd
government is re-elected," he said.
But Mr Hockey said he was more concerned with getting the coalition elected, rather
than who would fill what job in the public service.
Whether or not Dr Henry stays on for a third term, the Resource Super Profits Tax
that was recommended in the Henry review continues to draw heated debate.
The government is expected to hold talks with senior BHP Billiton executives this
week but that didn't stop Treasurer Wayne Swan taking aim at the mining giant's
chief Marius Kloppers.
"Mr Kloppers and BHP have yet to actually come to the consultation committee. I
would urge them to do that," Mr Swan told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"I would have expected they would have been to the consultation committee well
before now."
Fortescue Metals chief executive Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest accused the pro-RSPT camp
of waging "class war".
The billionaire has again called on the prime minister to abandon the proposed tax,
which he dubbed "an attack on Australian competitiveness".
Fortescue, Australia's third largest iron ore miner, on Wednesday said it had put
more than $17 billion worth of expansion projects on hold.
The company said debt-financing these projects had become difficult with the looming
threat of the federal government's "poorly designed" RSPT.
"I am a very experienced project financier and I cannot see a way ... that we can
maintain our equity, our Australian equity, in these projects and still develop them
under this highly theoretical new tax," Mr Forrest told a teleconference.