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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Of course, I am asked by a political party of the past about the history of the minerals resource rent tax. Let me just remind the political party of the past about that history. Of course, that history is that this government was motivated to step up to the plate to manage our current economic circumstances where we are seeing extraordinary growth in the resources sector and, of course, the generation of wealth of assets that can only be exploited once. By definition you can only bring minerals out of the ground and sell them once. In that economic circumstance we determined that it was appropriate for the nation to get a better share of that mineral wealth which we all collectively own.

In pursuit of that the government initially announced the resource super profits tax. Obviously we had some work to do with the mining industry and as Prime Minister I did that work with the mining industry, working with the Treasurer, and we delivered the agreement that is the foundation stone of the minerals resource rent tax. We will pursue in this parliament the legislation of the minerals resource rent tax. It is necessary to help us balance economic growth so that, across the country, we can provide a company tax reduction, most particularly a tax reduction for small businesses to help us balance economic growth across our nation. It will be there to support a growth in the pool of national savings, good for our macro economy, and good for the individuals who will benefit from an increased stream of retirement incomes.

We will use those proceeds to deliver infrastructure projects, particularly to communities that are feeling the pressures of growth arising from the resources sector. For people who are familiar with the pressures that come on cities like Perth, pressures that come on regional areas, they are manifest and more infrastructure is required.

When the legislation comes to this parliament the opposition will have to make a big call—a big call about whether they want businesses in this country to pay more tax, a big call about whether they want workers in this country to have less superannuation and a big call about whether they want communities in this country to have less infrastructure.

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