Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 7 September we had the federal election. We went to that election saying that we would chop the carbon tax, get rid of the mining tax, restore confidence to small business, get rid of red tape, and once and for all make business welcome in Australia again. This has been neglected over the last six years. Businesses had no confidence. Businesses had no guidelines. The goalposts kept moving.

We come to the mining industry: where do they sit now in Australia? In my state of Queensland and particularly Flynn, we have the Bowen Basin, the Galilee Basin and the Surat Basin. These areas have been hard hit.

What is a fair share tax? I have never heard the opposition tell me what a fair share tax is. Is it 50 per cent? Is it 30 per cent? Is it 80 per cent? They have not said. They might be surprised to know that the mining companies do pay a lot of taxes and, when I say a lot of taxes, I mean a lot of taxes. They pay corporate tax of 30 per cent. They pay payroll tax. They pay superannuation to their employees. They pay very good wages to their staff, and no-one denies miners the pay they get. I have been on several mine sites and I can tell you the miners work hard for their money and are thoroughly deserving of their pay. But their pay is very good pay compared to a policeman, a schoolteacher or a Woolworth's worker, and they enjoy the benefits of their hard work.

Mining companies also pay GST, and I do not know whether the opposition know but the mining companies are also very good community minded corporations. They help out in big and small communities in all sorts of different ways. They support doctors in mining towns. They support doctors in communities like Emerald and Biloela They do a lot of things. They put Christmas parties on for the kids, not just for their own employees and their kids but for the whole town. They are good corporate citizens.

In days gone by we used to welcome mining companies starting off in our region. I know there have been issues—miners versus farmers—but a lot of work has been done to improve the relationship between mining and agriculture. I can tell the House that it is going the right way. There is a saying in a town in my electorate called Rolleston that a successful farmer is one who works four days a week in the mines and the other four days on his property.

Mining companies are a great benefit to our area, our regions and the Australian economy. We do not need to chase these miners to other parts of the world, and that is exactly what is happening today. There are many Australian listed mining companies on the ASX that do not even mine in Australia. Over half of the ASX listed mining companies are not in Australia but in places like Africa, Mozambique, Mongolia and South America. They are not encouraged to invest in Australia. The rewards are few and the pain is great.

Productivity in Australia is not the best and by far the worst in the world in the coal and gas sector. Compare the wage of a coalminer in Indonesia with one in Australia. Twenty years ago, Indonesia did not export one tonne of coal. Now they export more than Australia—more than 30 per cent of the world's thermal coal. We used to export over 30 per cent of the world's total exports of thermal coal, but now we have slipped under 30 per cent. An Indonesian coalminer earns US$12,000 a year and I would hazard a guess that Australian wages are more around $150,000 a year.

We do need encouragement for mining companies to still feel welcome in Flynn and it will mean a lot in towns like Emerald, Capella, Moura, Blackwater and Tieri. Those towns have suffered since the mining tax was introduced and of course commodity prices have dropped and the Australian dollar has not helped things. All these costs impinge on an industry that is having a good look at its costs and finding out which mines will stay open and which mines will close, which contractors it will keep and which contractors it will let go. This is evident when I go to places like Springsure, Capella and Emerald, where back in the good old days I would have to book accommodation at least three weeks out, but now I can go to any one of those towns and readily get accommodation. Once upon a time, you could not rent a house in those towns and If you were lucky enough to, you would pay through the nose for it.    That has all changed. Contractors have left in their droves.

Regarding small business versus big business, I find that small business relies heavily on big business. If you do not have big business in a town, you do not have small business. Small businesses rely heavily on support from big industry in towns like Gladstone and Emerald—and, believe me, I was one of those small businesses. It is foolish to say that we only look after big business and not small business. That is a load of hogwash. We look after all businesses and that is why we pledged in the election campaign to reduce red tape on small business and in fact every other business that exists in Australia—from government business to councils to big and small business, including the mining sector. It was ridiculous getting an EIS through under the previous government. It took up to three years and sometimes longer than that. That is totally unacceptable. At the end of those three years, a company has either lost interest in the project or moved on, and in a lot of cases has moved overseas to start business elsewhere.

When it comes to superannuation, I heard what the previous speaker said, but I think it would also be a good idea if the employees were to put some money along with the employer's money into a superannuation fund. That would be another way of giving the workers on retirement a decent superannuation income that they could life off. Living longer, living better, as they say, would be enhanced if they were to contribute some of their own money into their superannuation fund. I objected to the way the opposition when in power could pilfer money from superannuation funds and from bank accounts. I think that is a travesty of justice and is not acceptable.

I listened with interest to the member from Grayndler, the former minister for infrastructure. He spoke about many projects that were delivered under the mining tax. What caught my attention was when he mentioned Gladstone, which of course is very dear to my heart. He said the port access road was virtually completed, with $50 million of the mining tax money—which of course never eventuated. I have to inform the House that the port access road stage 2 has not even been started, yet he said it is nearly completed. I have asked in the House and I have asked the then minister for infrastructure: where was the $50 million for the Gladstone port access road stage 2? I got no answers. I went to the main roads department and they told me that they have not seen the plans. I went to the local council and asked them if they had seen the plans for the Gladstone port access road stage 2. The answer was no. Yet, the former minister said in this House an hour ago that the road was almost completed. I would like that to be explained because there are no plans and there is no road. So I question all the other projects he mentioned in and around Australia.

I do question the former minister's grasp on his job. He came to Gladstone during the election and promised $10 million for the Kinkora intersection, or roundabout. He promised $10 million—it took him a couple of minutes to do that—and then spent the rest of his spiel to the media criticising me and my government for a lack of funding, lack of submissions, lack of promoting our area, and accusing me. I inform the House that as far as the Bruce Highway is concerned, there is work being done there at the Calliope Crossroads, the Yeppoon roundabout and Gin Gin north and south. But when the Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss and our team of Nationals went for a trip from Brisbane to Cairns on the Bruce Highway what did the then Minister for Transport and Infrastructure do? He laughed at us and said, 'It's a waste of time. I'm running this show, not you blokes.' Then he accuses me of not putting in any submissions to either him or the then Treasurer Wayne Swan.

It has been a continual battle to find out what projects are on the board and what projects have been properly funded. When it boils down to the real facts, with the Gladstone port access road stage 2 and the Gladstone-Kinkora roundabout, they have not consulted with the Queensland government. I was responsible for negotiating with Campbell Newman the other $12½ million of state government money to match the $12½ million of federal money to get the project underway. I could not believe that a minister of his experience could promise a project and less-than-half promise a project without liaising with his counterpart in Queensland.

All these things add up to a mining tax that does not produce sufficient money to keep it going. It is wrong. In my idea of running a show that is give and take, a show that will encourage people to come, the mining companies in Australia do pay sufficient tax.

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