we can't find axed mine projects - rudd

We can't find axed mine projects - Rudd
Updated: 17:00, Tuesday June 15, 2010
We can't find axed mine projects - Rudd

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has accused mining magnate Clive Palmer of cancelling mining exploration projects that may never have existed.

The Mineralogy boss announced in May he would cut $29 million of a planned $30 million exploration in South Australia as a result of the federal government's proposed resources tax.

But Mr Rudd said the government had found no evidence of those cancelled projects existing in the first place.

'We have been at work on this now, for two or three weeks - we can't find those projects,' the prime minister told parliament.

'Nobody can find those projects because frankly, we are of the view ... those projects may never have existed.'

Mr Rudd referred to Mr Palmer as the 'patron saint' of Queensland's Liberal National Party, in light of his generous donations to the conservative party.

Mr Palmer has previously compared the prime minister to communists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.