Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

the company tax rate. The company tax rate is coming down to 28c in the dollar. But they do not want to acknowledge that. And the last thing they will never acknowledge is that the effective tax rate paid by the mining industry is around 17c in the dollar. What those three things mean is that their figures do not add up, and their whole critique is just wrong, wrong, wrong. It is completely wrong. They are severely embarrassed by the fact that they have locked themselves into opposition to this modernisation of our tax system which is going to produce revenue to fund the reform of the Australian economy and ensure that we deal with the challenges of mining boom mark 2.

What we on this side of House are doing is facing up to the future. Those on that side of the House are locked into the past. They do not have a comprehension of what we need to do in the Asian century to maximise the opportunities that will flow to this country through a strong resource sector. How do we promote a method of taxation which recognises growth in the sector and which does not punish investment? I will tell you the first thing we can do: we can get rid of royalties. But they have locked themselves into this tax which absolutely punishes many miners and punishes investment, and they are so out of touch, so economically illiterate, that they cannot come to grips with this basic fact—they cannot come to grips with this at all. We on this side of the House face the future confidently. We face the future with a modern taxation system, one which recognises that the more profitable a firm is the more it should pay and the less profitable it is the less it should pay. They cannot acknowledge that one simple fact because they have locked themselves into a campaign of the mining council.

The situation is simply this: those opposite are now going to oppose a tax cut for all small businesses in Australia. Those opposite are opposing a move in the corporate rate down to 28c in the dollar. Those opposite are supporting an outdated, inefficient, punishing royalty regime and, more importantly, what they are opposing is direct investment back into mining communities, to which so much of the wealth is related. So they are opposing economic reform across the board.

The Leader of the Opposition likes to say he is straight shooter. He says he wants to stand up for families. He says he stands up for small business. But he comes into this House and sells out all of the families of Australia and all of the small businesses of Australia because he has been sponsored by a couple of large mining companies—companies that are paying an effective tax rate of 17c in the dollar, not 30c in the dollar as they assert. And of course the opposition go on with a lot of other rubbish. They go on and claim this has had some impact on share prices and some impact on the currency, when there are events occurring overseas which are impacting on our markets. They are so irresponsible they can come in here and make those sorts of reckless statements. They also come in here and claim that this is somehow a retrospective tax. It is nothing of the sort. Those who argue that would argue that we should leave royalties at the same rate forever and deny the Australian people their fair share of the resources that they own 100 per cent. The Australian people own these resources, and we are determined that they will get a fair share.

See this speech in context