The Coalition has directly announced for the first time that it will oppose the Rudd government's reousrces rent tax.
"Yesterday the shadow cabinet decided that the coalition would vote against the Rudd government's next, great big new tax on everything, this resources rent tax it wants to impose on the resources sector," Abbott announced to reporters in Adelaide.
The tax is "not just a tax against foreign shareholders", he said.
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Indirectly or directly, he said, 500,000 Australians work in the resources sector, and it is a tax against all of them, as well as on superannuants and on consumers.
The message of not trusting Rudd on the economy was reitereated, and he critiqued the 'dictate first and consult later' approach of the PM.
"It's no way to run a country", Abbott said.
The only way to ensure good economic management was to change government, he said.
Yesterday, Abbott met with industry executives and emerged from the meeting leaving commentators in little doubt that he would side with industry.
