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

The Leader of the Opposition interjects, ‘How are you going to do that?’ Not by increasing the company tax rate, as he is planning to do. We are bringing it down two percentage points; you are taking it up two percentage points. There is a big difference.

Secondly, we are also boosting the competitiveness of the Australian economy by investing in infrastructure. That is necessary in order to underpin long-term productivity growth. We are investing also in the tax competitiveness of our small business sector. We will lose an opportunity to deliver a fair share for all Australians if the opposition blocks this legislation. If the Leader of the Opposition blocks this RSPT, he will be denying workers an increase in super from nine per cent to 12 per cent. He will be denying a worker on about average earnings an additional $108,000 a year. He will be denying working Australians better super on their retirement. He will be denying all those Australian companies a two percentage point tax cut. He will be denying Australian small business a $5,000 tax break. He will also be denying some 6.4 million Australian taxpayers a radical opportunity to simplify their tax arrangements and to throw the shoebox away, if they so choose, when it comes to tax time. That is what is at stake with these reforms.

I was asked by the member for Braddon about other people’s comments on these reforms and the need to tax the mining sector more. It seems that the Leader of the Opposition alone in this country believes that our mining sector is currently paying enough tax. His state political colleague recently said the following:

The mining companies are aware of it and some of them have expressed their views. I have to say that a few people who work around the mining industry have come to me over the summer and said, ‘By the way, Colin, the mining companies are getting away with murder; they’re not paying enough.’

So says Colin Barnett, the Liberal Premier of Western Australia.

We go to Don Voelte, a leading representative of the mining industry in Western Australia, who said this:

Your original question was, ‘Can the miners give a little bit more?’ In talking to the big miners and the mid-cap miners, I have not heard that they are not willing to negotiate a different tax and a higher tax back. They want to give a fair share back to the Australian citizens.

Look at what Roger Corbett has had to say on the matter of tax reform. He said the following:

These are resources owned by Australians and Australians should extract from those resources the best possible advantage that they can. In principle I support a resources tax. I support a taxing regime that allows redistribution and I support a taxing regime that retains some of the value of this asset that is going to be consumed to the point where there is nothing left so that they can have an asset base for the future.

So said Mr Corbett, whom the previous government appointed to the Reserve Bank board.

So there you have it: the WA Liberal Premier says that the mining industry—in his words, not mine—is getting away with murder. Don Voelte from Woodside says that it is entirely appropriate for mining companies to be paying more. Roger Corbett of the Reserve Bank, a leading Australian businessman, says that in-principle support for a resources rent tax is appropriate. There is only one person in this parliament who believes that our mining industry is paying enough, and that is the Leader of the Opposition.

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