George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right—and claim the credit, as the member for Riverina says. They try to fob us off with a line about lowering company rates to offset the increased employment costs brought in by super changes, but who is going to believe that line? I can tell you that we will not fall for that. Thousands of small businesses that are not companies will not believe it for a second—those that are small traders and those that are in partnerships: Bob the plumber, Uncle John and Aunty Betty at the corner store. They are the small business who will pay this super tax directly, because they employ a lot of people across this nation. Or they did until now; because when employment costs go up something has to come down. I can tell you that many of these businesses are already on the edge. They are marginal now and cutting back on personal expenses themselves. They are waiting for an opportunity, though, to grow their business. But if there is another expense they will have to lay off staff or cut costs, or they will just go and shut up shop and look for a job somewhere. And if there are none, they will probably become yet another person on the unemployment line.

What this ridiculous tax and superannuation plan will do is introduce a different patchwork in the economy. What is worse is that this government is trying to claim credit for the superannuation. What really sticks in my craw is this concept that the mining tax is going to deliver for regions. What a joke, and what an absolute rort.

We have seen how Labor fails on that scorecard with the Queensland Labor government. Queensland already taxes the mining industry—it is called royalties. All the hard work—the sweat, the toil and the effort—and all the blood and tears in North and Central Queensland contributes to the state economy and to the national economy. All the burden that families bear, all the wealth-producing effort, delivers more than $2 billion in royalties just through the coal ports of Abbot Point, Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay in North and Central Queensland alone.

And what do we get in return for that? Zero, zilch, nothing. That money is funnelled straight into the south-east corner. We have seen attempts to spread that wealth, but it does not get spread around. It actually just gets funnelled. If this same foolish plan is put into federal Labor hands, we know too well in Central and North Queensland what will happen. It will be used to fill the gaping void that currently prevents Wayne Swan from getting a surplus. It will go down to Sydney or a bit further to Melbourne. None of it will come back to the wealth-producing centres.

How do we know? Let us take a look at the forward estimates. The mining tax raises, as I said, $11.1 billion over the next three years. What comes back to regional Queensland—the big wealth-producing area, apart from WA? The best they can offer is a handful of transport infrastructure projects. There is something good in here: $160 million for a ring road in North Queensland; $120 million for safety upgrades on the Peak Downs Highway, although it will actually cost three times more than that to deliver; $54 million for an intersection in the south-west of the state; $50 million for a port access road in Gladstone; $40 million for an intersection upgrade in Central Queensland; and in my electorate I am stuck with a $10 million study. Great!

But I am being pretty generous here because not all these projects are actually linked to the mining tax. They are regional projects that will be funded over the lifetime of the forward estimates where the MRRT is supposed to collect $11.1 billion. These projects total $434 million out of a tax take of $11.1 billion. That is less than four per cent returned to one of the greatest mineral wealth states in Australia. If that is a fair share, I would hate to be sitting at the dining table when Swanny's carving up the corned beef. I am a big fella, and I suspect that when the Treasurer thinks that four per cent is a fair share I would be getting this little sliver of silverside and I would probably have to fade away to a shadow!

What a rort—$11.1 billion out, with the large bulk coming from Queensland, and only four per cent back. Ripping $100 out, giving four per cent back and saying that is fair—what a joke! Fairer faces emerge from the underground at Oakey Creek, covered in coal dust from head to toe.

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