Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

We have a government in this country that is meddling with Australia’s future prosperity and the living standards of all Australians. Terry McCrann was correct when he said:

The so-called Resource Super Profits Tax is a case study of the Rudd Government in action. Of spin and outright deception, shameless and recklessly dangerous politicisation, and fiscal fiddling that would win grudging admiration from the master Paul Keating.

This great big new tax will erode the value of superannuation savings for millions of average Australians. This massive loss in value seems to be lost on the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, who amazingly said that this is something the government is not worried about. He also said that this will have a very small impact on the retirement incomes of self-funded retirees. The arrogance of this government is breathtaking.

Let us look at the figures. Since the government leaked the news of its great big tax on mining on 13 April, $90 billion has been wiped off the value of resources stocks in Australia—that is, more than 20 per cent of the value. Resources stocks account for about 9.3 per cent of superannuation balances. This means that over $23 billion has been ripped from superannuation accounts since the government leaked the news of its great big new tax. Superannuation is down around two per cent as a result of the performance of the resource stocks, yet Minister Bowen is not worried about this amount. He is on the record as saying that he is not worried at all that superannuants will be hit by the resources tax.

And then, of course, there is the cost of living. The Australian people are still reeling from the realisation that the Prime Minister’s other great big new tax on everything—the ETS—was going to drive the cost of living through the roof. They are now finding that this cost burden has merely been postponed until after the next election. Yet they are in for another great big slug: the impact of the RSPT on prices. This resource supertax will impact on the cost of energy and the cost of building materials. The increased cost of energy means Australians will pay more for electricity. The Prime Minister, who promised to take pressure off struggling families, was not content with the 64 per cent increase in power prices in New South Wales as a result of the ETS and state Labor’s incompetence; he now wants to slug consumers again, and this time it is the RSPT—the great big new supertax.

In the media today the Energy Supply Association boss, Brad Page, is reported as saying that consumers will not be quarantined if the 40 per cent tax drives up the price of coal, increasing the cost of electricity. He said:

Any additional cost that’s imposed on fuels will one way or another be sought to be passed through to consumers.

He went on to say:

To the extent that companies can shift taxes onto consumers, I expect they will try.

Those comments do not come from the coalition; they come from the Energy Supply Association of Australia, an organisation that represents electricity generators, distributors and retailers. Then there is the impact on the cost of housing. Once again, this supertax will potentially drive up the cost of gravel, concrete and other building materials—all this from a Prime Minister who promised he was going to drive down the cost of living.

This is a very dangerous tax. It is a time bomb in the hands of an incompetent government. This is a government that could not give away pink batts without stuffing it up. It got ripped off to the tune of almost $1 million to build a dunny, as reported in the newspapers today, and it is proposing to drive a dagger through the heart of our future prosperity. This tax is creating a sovereign risk crisis for this country. It will drive away investment, it will increase the cost of capital, it will destroy the retirement nest eggs of average Australians and it will drive up the cost of living.

This tax is being fraudulently represented by this government under the watch of a Prime Minister who stands for nothing. We see them ducking and weaving, quoting and misquoting one report after another, trying to justify their stance. The Australian people are not silly. They know about Australia’s dependency on mining. They can see for themselves the importance of mining. They are very concerned about the impact of this tax on Australia’s future prosperity, on employment and on the cost of living. It is an outrageous tax, and the coalition will oppose it to the end.

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