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

Yesterday we had the Leader of the Opposition saying that the mining companies in this country were paying too much tax. That is what he said. This is a severe embarrassment for them because not even the mining companies have the gall to say that they are paying too much tax. Perhaps not even Clive Palmer, who sponsors them, would ever say something so stupid or so extreme. This is what the Leader of the Opposition had to say yesterday: the mining companies were paying too much tax.

How do we get to the bottom of this case about how much tax they are paying? Let us go back to the one basic fact that they have not been able to refute. It is very simple. At the beginning of this decade, mining companies were paying one dollar in three in terms of their profits in royalties and other charges, and by the end of the decade that had got to one dollar in seven. What that demonstrates—

See this speech in context