Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, because he knows that the only way that Western Australians will get the infrastructure that they need and deserve is from a coalition government. If Western Australia is to get world-class infrastructure it will be a coalition government that will provide it. Yesterday, the member for Grayndler claimed that the Gateway project in Western Australia was a 'fully funded $1 billion project under the previous Labor government', but the money was going to come from the mining tax, and the mining tax has not raised any money—so it was not a fully funded project. When he was speaking on 20 November about the repeal of the mining tax he also listed another lot of Western Australian projects, all of which he said were funded by the mining tax, such as the Great Northern Highway stage 2, $152 million to the North West Coastal Highway and the Swan Valley bypass. The reality is that the mining tax has not raised any money.

Now, if the member for Grayndler does not think that is a problem, perhaps he should talk to the member for Lilley, the former Treasurer, because the member for Lilley said on Perth radio on 25 March 2011, 'Revenue from the mining resource rent tax goes to investment in infrastructure projects, like the Gateway project in Western Australia around the airport.' Then he went on to say, 'If we don't have the revenue from the tax, we can't make the investments.' So the then Treasurer belled the cat. He made it absolutely clear that if you do not raise any money from the mining tax you do not get the projects. So Western Australians need to be aware of the fact that no money from the mining tax meant no Gateway project for Perth, no North West Highway projects. The money was not there. It was not fully funded. The mining tax has failed to deliver the revenue that would enable these projects to be built.

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