Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. He refers to the minerals resource rent tax. The government is determined to deliver this tax because the Australian economy is in a phase of development where we are seeing huge growth in our resources sector, mining and profiting from assets that, by definition, can be exploited only once. While we are in that stage of this country’s development, it makes absolute sense for Australians to share in the wealth that is generated and for our taxation and national savings settings to be ones that benefit the rest of the economy and help balance growth for the long term. That is why the proceeds of the minerals resource rent tax will be used to cut company taxation generally, to particularly lift the tax burdens off small businesses, to grow our pool of national savings through superannuation, to provide a better retirement income for Australians in their old age and to have a better pool of national savings for our economy to draw on and, of course, to invest in infrastructure.

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