Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to rise and address this issue today. The mining industry in Australia is highly valued, and right now the centre of mining in Australia is Western Australia. Western Australia has a responsibility to this nation to pull its weight. We have heard a great deal from the Minister for Resources and Energy about why the actions of Premier Barnett are somehow illegitimate. All I can suggest is: check the records, look at the communications that took place and make up your own mind. Premier Colin Barnett has done the right thing by Western Australians and continues to do the right thing by all Australians in supporting this nation, being the state Premier of the coalface, if we may say, of the Australian Treasury. Mining in Western Australia, according to the best stats from 2007-08, made a contribution of $58.6 billion to the Western Australian economy. The Western Australian minerals and petroleum sector contributed 83 per cent of the state's merchandise exports. It contributes approximately 53 per cent of Australia's total value of mineral and petroleum sales. Royalties received by the state government from Western Australian mineral and petroleum producers totalled approximately $2.3 billion in the year.

This whole argument about fines and the rate of royalty levied on fines goes back to the development of the iron ore provinces of Western Australia in the early sixties. Fines were considered at the time to be an inferior product and not particularly required by the smelters of the world. Therefore, there was a reduction in the royalty charged of something like 1.375 per cent. That reduction or concession, in the light of the popularity today of iron ore of any description, has been removed. It is as simple as that. It is not an increase; it is a removal of a concession that the industry in Western Australia has known about for about the last two years. The statement by the Premier in the latest state budget simply gives the industry two full years to come up to speed in paying the full royalty rate of 7.5 per cent. This is much less of an impact than many would suggest is the case.

The mining industry in Western Australia, I might add, in the most recent annual report, contributes $70.9 billion. That is the resources sector in Western Australia. It is now 89 per cent of the state's total merchandise exports and it is 42 per cent of the nation's exports. And $176 billion is the value of projects underway, committed or close to commitment. It is those projects that are close to commitment that I wish to bring to the attention of the House. The imposition of this MRRT, the minerals resource rent tax, speaks to potential investors around the world, who used to believe that Australia was a good place to put their capital investment because, apart from many differences that occur around the world, sovereign risk in Australia is exceptionally low. Investors would say, 'We can deposit our capital funds there. We know that they will make profits for us into the future because Australia is secure.' Australia has had good governance and a reputation for low sovereign risk. With the introduction of the MRRT, all of that reputation goes out the window—forever. The real issue today is the decisions being made in boardrooms around the world as to where to put floating capital. If our reputation as a secure destination for those funds is trashed then we take the risk of reducing employment in the resources industry.

Keep in mind that when this government last year raised the spectre of the people of Australia not being compensated for the mineral wealth that this nation possesses they talked about Australians not getting their fair share of the wealth. What about the taxi drivers in suburban Melbourne and Sydney, the hairdressers and others who provide services to those households employed on a fly-in fly-out basis in the Western Australian iron ore province? That has all been discounted. The government seem to have a hypocritical view of the world. They talk about wanting to close the gap. They refer blithely to closing the gap. They are talking about the health and education differentials between Indigenous Australians and other Australians. Do they realise that, in imposing the MRRT, they run the risk of taking away all of the investment that the mining companies place in regional Australia for the assistance of education, employment and the consequential long-term health of Indigenous Australians?

The Martu people enjoy something like $6 million per annum from Telfer in the way of training and improved health and facilities on the ground like roads and airstrips that will allow flying doctors to come in and provide health services. When imposing a tax on the mining industry, albeit just on the iron ore and coal industries today—and remember that iron ore is the major mined substance in Western Australia—I remind you: what about tomorrow? It is the thin end of the wedge when you talk about the mining industry involving coal and iron ore. But with a greedy government in power that lives by the mantra of, 'Impose a new tax whenever the budget looks crook,' what about all of the other very wealthy, great contributors to this national economy such as goldminers, manganese miners and solar salt producers? Those industries are shivering right now because they fear that this greedy government will impose additional taxes on their industries as well, to say nothing of that hanging sword of Damocles called a carbon tax.

The mining industry is not always going to be the golden goose. This government want to impose a tax that will put the wealth of this nation at risk because they are short-sighted and, frankly, hypocritical in their view. If we are going to increase employment, another mantra of this government, why would we impose a tax on the very industry that has the potential to employ another 27,000 Australians this year? It makes no sense to be so two-faced in one's approach to solving problems for this nation.

There is a great deal to be said about improvements and the way forward in the mining industry. I have a long list of recommendations here. I will pick a couple from the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia. They talk about improving skilled migration. They talk about improving education and training in the industry. They talk about having a strategic policy of planning initiatives to fulfil their vision for the state of Western Australia and exploring innovative ways to manage water, one of our scarcest resources, for enabling growth. They say nothing about the necessity to impose a great big new tax to pave the way forward for this industry.

If we are serious about maintaining the wealth of this nation, if we could be serious for a moment about envisaging this government ever having a budget in surplus, why on earth would we impose a great big new tax on the very industry that sustains this Treasury? It does not make sense. Why would you impose a tax on the industry that provides such a resource for Indigenous people in health, education, training and employment? It is the height of hypocrisy to suggest that you could impose a tax and therefore improve the outcome for all of those other things that this government proposes. They put their hands on their hearts and talk about the necessity to improve life expectancy, education and employment opportunities. None of those things will be achieved if they impose this minerals resource rent tax on the very successful industries of this nation.

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