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

I thank the Leader of the National Party for his question. In response to his question I refer him in part to the answer I gave to an earlier question from the member for Bradfield, and that goes to the aggregate impact of the overall tax reform package which the government has put forward and its impact on growth, employment and investment in the mining industry. In fact, it is projected that investment in the mining industry will increase by between 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent as a result of the reform, and that employment within the mining industry will increase by seven per cent as a result of the reform being brought in by the government. And that is because we are bringing in a profits based tax as opposed to one which is based on production.

The Leader of the National Party talks about the impact of this tax reform proposal on the industry more broadly. I also note in passing, as in fact did the Treasurer in answering a question, that if you look at the National Party’s constituency—and they had their conference over the weekend—it is pretty interesting to know where they actually stand on the question of the National Broadband Network. What is the Leader of the National Party, claiming to represent the interests of all those regions out there, actually saying about their desire to have decent, reliable, cheap, broadband services?

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