Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Minister for Resources and Energy for his sterling work in recent days in working with a mining industry which is comprised of miners who want to get on with the business of their work. There are a number of them out there who have been making a range of public statements, some of which have been true and others not. As I said in response to the question asked before on the implementation of the government’s new proposed Resource Super Profits Tax, we are engaged in a process of consultation with the mining industry, as I said before, and as I have said before in Perth and elsewhere, on the detail of, the implementation of and the transition to these arrangements. That is what we intend to do. We are currently in the process, through the minister and through the Treasurer, of doing so with a large number of companies right across Australia.

I would also say to the member for Groom, who has just asked this question, that he should pay very close attention to the submission given to the Henry review by the head of the mining industry council himself when he recommended a resource rent tax for the future. It is interesting to see how things change once action is taken in order to bring about fundamental tax reform. I noticed in particular that the member for Groom has not referred to the measures contained in the government’s tax reform proposal to assist the exploration industry—$1.1 billion of additional assistance. I noticed also that the member for Groom did not draw attention to the fact that we are also assisting smaller to medium miners who may not be bringing in profits in their initial years of operation. I would draw the member for Groom’s attention to the modelling done independently through Econtech for the Treasury in producing this set of reforms. For the mining industry it is projected that this will result in an overall growth in the industry of some 6.5 per cent. Those opposite do not care about these individual elements of reform. Consistent with so many other things they do in this place, they are first and foremost about a fear campaign devoid of fact. We intend to get on with the business of reform, and reform which does three things: provides super savings for working Australians—all of them; secondly, provides tax breaks for corporate Australia, including small business; and, thirdly, provides support for investment in our long-term infrastructure needs. These are the three driving elements of the reform, broadening the base of the mining industry through a series of changes which we have reflected on carefully based on submissions from the mining industry as well. We intend to get on with it.

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