Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I think today in question time we had five answers from the government that extensively quoted from President Obama's State of the Union address. It was a very selective presentation, by the government, from President Obama's address.

There was one quite resonant declaration from President Obama, which I would like to share with the House and which, funnily enough, did not make it into anything said by ministers opposite. Let us listen to what President Obama said: 'Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot keep,' and he went on: 'but we must keep the promises we have already made.' Why didn't the government quote President Obama? Let me repeat it: 'Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot keep but we must keep the promises we've already made.'

For the benefit of ministers opposite, let me say that the government did promise $10.5 billion in mining tax revenue—a promise that it could not keep and always knew or should have known that it could not keep. It did promise not to change the mining tax, a promise that it is preparing to break. Haven't we seen this all before, from this government? It makes commitments it cannot keep, it blusters about its ability to deliver and then it betrays people—a consistent pattern of conduct from this government.

The government said the mining tax would raise $10.5 billion, it said it would rebate royalties and it said that the miners could offset the market value of their assets. The tax has not raised the revenue and the government is now preparing to break the deal. Another betrayal is coming up. As sure as night follows day, another betrayal from this government is coming up. It might happen before the election. It will certainly happen after the election, if this government is re-elected. It will gouge the mining industry, as sure as night follows day. Either it will no longer rebate royalties—it will change the basis upon which the tax is calculated—or it will extend the mining tax to more minerals. This is absolutely inevitable. It is absolutely certain, because you cannot fund $15 billion worth of programs with $126 million of revenue. Not even Wayne Swan thinks that sum adds up. It cannot stop the spending so it must raise the tax. It is as certain as night follows day. What is also as certain as night follows day is that this government will never be straight with people about what it is doing.

Almost everything that this government has ever said about the mining tax has turned out to be false. It was going to fund company tax cuts. Remember the company tax cuts that the mining tax was going to fund, that were so important for maintaining investment and so important for preserving the competitiveness of the Australian economy? That lasted about 12 months. The mining tax never funded any company tax cuts. In fact, in a state of cold panic or blue funk at the impact of the carbon tax last year, the mining tax funded, or was supposed to fund, a series of politically targeted handouts.

Then the mining tax was going to raise massive amounts of money. It started at $10.5 billion, before the last election, when the mining tax was announced. By the time the MYEFO for that year was released, $10.5 billion had become $7.4 billion. But then, in the 2011 budget, rescue was at hand. It went up to $7.7 billion. When MYEFO came out—the fourth attempt to estimate the revenue—it was down to $7.5 billion. In the fifth attempt, in last year's budget, it was going to raise $6.5 billion in its first two years of operation. And then, in November last year, when MYEFO came out, it was going to raise $4.4 billion and $2 billion this year.

The great shrinking mining tax eventually became the great disappearing mining tax; just $126 million was raised. Even this information had to be dragged out of the government.

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