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

It was illegal, the government told us, for weeks. It could not possibly release any information—finally, $126 million or less than 10 per cent of the much reduced estimates. As Dennis Atkins in the Courier-Mail said this morning, with the money raised from the mining tax, they would struggle to cover the hospitality bill at Eddie Obeid's ski lodge!

That is what they have done. Then, by the time you offset the company tax and pay for the administration, virtually nothing has been raised from the mining tax. Finally, the government said that the mining tax was all about 'spreading the benefits of the boom'. Well, $126 million divided by 22 million Australians is just a little more than $5 each—aren't we grateful?

The mining tax was always a bad idea. It was always terrible policy for three reasons: first, you do not speed up the slow lane of the economy by slowing down the fast lane; second, you do not strengthen our economy by weakening its strongest sector; and third—something that members opposite just do not understand—you will never build prosperity by increasing taxes. It was always bad policy. But, if the idea was bad, the execution has been even worse. The minister for resources—and I have to say that, if there is one of the three signatories to the mining tax deal who does have some respect in the sector, it is the minister for resources—had a rare burst of candour in question time today when he said, 'This was the tax the mining industry wanted.' Of course they wanted it, because it was the tax that they never had to pay! It was a tax that they knew they were never going to have to pay. They did not want any new tax but, if there had to be a new tax, let it be one that they did not have to pay!

The truth is that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer—who, let us never forget, personally negotiated this tax; the great negotiator!—personally negotiated this tax. Treasury officials were kicked out of the room. The great negotiator was comprehensively out-negotiated and comprehensively outwitted by the mining bosses. You know, I think she knew she had been outwitted. I am sure she knew she had been outwitted and I am sure the Treasurer knew he had been outwitted, but they did not really care that they had been outwitted because they just needed a deal to take to the election. They needed a deal to take to the election, because do you know what they counted on? Breaking it as soon as the election had come and gone.

There is a pattern of conduct here. This is a government that promises whatever it takes to get what it wants today and breaks that promise to get what it wants tomorrow. It does it again and again and again. The Prime Minister told us before the last election—told the Australian people before the election—that there would be 'no carbon tax' to win the votes of the people, and she promptly broke that promise to get the support of the Greens. The Prime Minister promised that there would be mandatory precommitment for poker machines to get the support of Andrew Wilkie, the member for Denison, and she then promptly broke that promise to keep the support of caucus. The Prime Minister promised that there would be a surplus this year; she made that promise to demonstrate her economic credibility, and then promptly broke that promise to win support from voters so that bribe after bribe could be offered in the run-up to this election. The government promised the miners a tax they would not pay to buy peace before the last election. Now it is going to break that promise so that it can pay for a whole range of pre-election bribes. This is a pattern of conduct from this government.

I want to say today, a day where this parliament has done great things, that this government is not all bad. We did do something this morning—and the government did something this morning—that we should all respect. But, when it comes to the fundamentals of governing this nation, no government has ever been worse. It is fundamentally incompetent and fundamentally untrustworthy, and the mining tax shambles is an absolute illustration of those facts. The Prime Minister, let's never forget, told us back in June 2010 that 'a good government had lost its way'. That is what she said in June 2010: 'A good government had lost its way.' Well, she never even believed that. She never even believed that it was a good government, because she subsequently told us, to carpet bomb the member for Griffith out of a leadership challenge, that in fact it was a chaotic and dysfunctional government. She said back then in June 2010 that three things would be fixed: she would fix climate change, and she has fixed that by introducing the carbon tax that she said there never ever would be; she said she would fix the border protection disaster, and that is so fixed that we have had 26,000 illegal arrivals by boat on this Prime Minister's watch, the largest influx in our history; and then she said she would fix the mining tax, and she has fixed the mining tax with an act of pure genius—the only tax ever introduced that hardly raises any revenue. It damages investments, it damages jobs, but it does not raise any revenue.

But that is only one half of the dynamic duo now responsible for the stewardship of this nation; what about the Treasurer? He was going to give us a surplus; he promised it on, I think, 366 separate occasions, and now there is no surplus. He promised us that he was going to give us half a million jobs within two years; time is almost up and we have got less than a third of the new jobs promised. Then he promised us, of course, $2 billion in mining tax revenue in this financial year, and we have had less than 10 per cent. Has there ever been a worse government in our history?

I used to think that the Whitlam government had been worse, but that is so unfair to Gough Whitlam, who never sold his soul to the Greens the way this government has.

We have had some remarkable combinations at the top of government in our country. We had the remarkable combination of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating—a great reforming pair at the top of this country. And then we had the remarkable combination of John Howard and Peter Costello—probably the best Prime Minister-Treasurer combination in our history. And what have we got now? This Prime Minister and this Treasurer—Gillard and Swan. No wonder the Australian people cannot wait for an election.

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