Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

After the last election, I met in Sydney with a number of mining and resource ministers from central African states. There were ministers from Chad, Cameroon, the Congo and Burundi. They told me that the reason that they were in Australia was because they were seeking investment from the Australian investment community in their countries because they saw an opportunity to capitalise on the sovereign risk that prevailed over investment in the Australian mining sector. They could relate to me chapter and verse of the impact of the carbon tax and the mining tax on Australia's international reputation as a reliable trading partner and as a reliable place to do business. Does anyone recall the phrase 'sovereign risk' being used in the same sentence with 'Australia' before this lot came into government?

Today the coalition has raised as a matter of public importance the disastrous saga of the latest version of the minerals resource rent tax, the mining tax, and the impact on sovereign risk for Australia. As the Leader of the Opposition so eloquently catalogued it, the MRRT, the minerals resource rent tax, has been an unmitigated disaster for the Gillard government. This tax reminds me of the Cheshire cat, appearing and then disappearing until it just fades away, leaving only the grin. You will remember that in Alice in Wonderland that prompted Alice to think 'she'd often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.' Well, we have seen revenue without a tax but never a tax without revenue. This really is like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.

We got a public taste yesterday from the member for Griffith, God bless him, as to the bitterness that resides within Labor on this issue. He wanted Australians to understand, very clearly, that the current fiasco was the idea of the current Prime Minister and her Treasurer. Indeed, former Prime Minister Rudd made a point of noting that the Treasurer deserved to be pinned with the title 'father of the minerals resource rent tax'. According to the member for Griffith, it was the Treasurer's idea from the beginning and as the then Prime Minister he agreed to proceed with it based on the assurances of the Treasurer. But, as former Prime Minister Rudd said in his most understated way, 'It has not collected any real revenue of any significance so far.'

When the whole Kevin thing came crashing down the first time round in 2010, the member for Griffith lost his prime ministership. However—and it is important that my colleagues recall this—the Treasurer, the principal architect of this unmitigated mess, actually got a promotion to Deputy Prime Minister. That is the Labor way: completely mess up a policy and you get promoted.

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