Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I tell you what, mate: if you haven't got the guts to ask a question about Olympic Dam and South Australia, I'd button up right now, old sunshine! Mike Young, the managing director of BC Iron, neatly summed it up. He said:

When you look at the juniors—

that is, the junior mining companies—

they are suffering because there is a new sovereign risk in Australia. I know guys in New York who will not invest in Australia until this government is gone.

These are the people making the investment decisions. And the government says, 'Everything is rosy; everything is fine'.

Yesterday BHP announced that their net profit was down 34 per cent. Today Qantas announced a loss for the first time in two decades—$245 million for the 2012 financial year. But the Treasurer says everything is fine. BlueScope Steel posted a net loss of $1.04 billion this year. The Treasurer says everything is fine. Santos' profit of $262 million in the six months to 30 June was down 48 per cent. But the Treasurer says everything is fine. Westfield's half-year revenue of $1.213 billion was down 10 per cent. The Treasurer says everything is fine. Fairfax saw a net loss of $2.732 billion. But the Treasurer says, 'We're the best in the world.' Sims Metal, the world's biggest scrap metal recycler, has announced a $521 million loss. But, again, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister say, 'Everything's fine; it's all okay—our taxes are growing jobs and growing the economy.' Rio Tinto has announced a 22 per cent slump in first half profits to $5 billion. Stockland, a major property developer in Australia, says profit for the year fell by more than a third to $487 million, in what it describes as 'tough conditions'. But the Treasurer says everything is fine. Cochlear have slashed their profit by 68 per cent.

Some of these things might be being caused by company specific issues, but there is a trend. Corporate Australia is saying something very different to this government, because this government does not live in the real world. This is a government living in a bubble, a bubble that they keep fantasising about, because that bubble is the only thing that is holding up their litany of new promises—the promises that are funded by the mining boom, by a mining tax which is destroying jobs and by a carbon tax which is destroying jobs. So they go on a spending spree on small business asset write-offs of nearly $3 billion; on infrastructure of $3 billion; on superannuation at $1.8 billion; on concessional caps on super of $1.3 billion; on phasing down the withholding tax of $200 million and on a range of other things—loss carry-back, and of course their School Kids Bonus. All of this is to be paid for out of the mining tax and they do not want to admit the money is not there. Do you know why? The moment they do that, they have to admit they are going to increase taxes. And one thing we know about the Labor Party is that, when it comes to tax, you can't trust the Labor Party. They lied before the last election to the Australian people about a carbon tax—

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