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

Thirdly, we had the shadow infrastructure minister come out and say that miners are not paying enough tax. So we have had too much, not enough and just right—as I said yesterday, the Goldilocks policy on tax from the opposition: that is, they cannot quite settle on it. Today we had a further contribution from the good old member for Kalgoorlie. Where is he? Is he missing in action from the debate today? He was asked today a question on the level of tax: ‘Do you agree with Tony Abbott when he says they pay more than a fair share of tax?’ Mr Haase said, ‘No, I do not.’ There you go. ‘And, you know, you’re going to question me as to why I disagree with my leader, but I’m pretty close to the mining industry.’ So there we have the member for Kalgoorlie repudiating his leader.

It gets better because the member for Kalgoorlie was then asked, ‘But, Barry, isn’t it damaging, though, for the opposition to have different options on whether or not mining companies are paying too much tax or not enough tax? The government is keen to exploit that.’ Mr Haase, the member for Kalgoorlie, then said, ‘I think individual points of view are a fine thing.’ In other words, it is not just a question of having a tax policy which says you are paying too much tax, not enough tax and just enough tax. In fact, he says that everyone in the opposition should have their own individual tax policy. That is where we have got to—Monday, too much tax; Tuesday, not enough tax; Wednesday, just the right amount of tax; and Thursday, everyone should have a tax policy. What we have seen on tax policy is abject chaos and confusion on the part of those opposite. It is very simple. If you cannot manage a tax system, you cannot manage the public finance of Australia. What you have had is a chaotic opposition who would in government be a chaotic government. If you cannot manage the tax policy of the country, you cannot manage the economy of the country, and you cannot manage the country itself.

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