Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start by thanking all those that have contributed to this debate—in particular, those on the coalition side who made a contribution that I thought was appropriate; they recognised the bill that is before the House. It stands in stark contrast unfortunately to the pious amendment that has been moved by the shadow minister at the table. I have to say that is entirely consistent with Labor's failure to recognise the results of the last federal election and entirely consistent with Labor's ongoing commitment to their mining tax. The amendment moved by the shadow assistant Treasurer once again attempts to portray Labor's failed mining tax as in some way being a fairness tax or a benefit to Australia and to her people.

One wonders how long Labor will keep up the charade of being supportive of a mining tax that has some $16 billion or so of expenditure associated with it, but in reality—as we saw in yesterday's question time answer from the Treasurer—placed Labor on a platform where it missed the projection by some 97 per cent. I think the Treasurer described it as a 'once-in-100-year event'. But the most telling aspect of it is that the Australian Labor Party—still, on a bill like this—attempts to make mischief and attempts to hold out that the mining tax is in some way in the interests of the Australian people. The amendment that was moved underscores yet again how completely out of touch the Labor Party is. Frankly, it baffles me how a former government, a now opposition, could continue to pretend that this tax—which has failed to make 97 per cent of its forecast revenue, and is being thrust once again before the House as part of the national debate about the future of our country—is in any way, shape or form a positive step.

I would have thought that any sane person, having put forward a policy initiative and having seen that policy initiative raise three per cent, approximately, of its forecast revenue—a policy initiative that is responsible in part for some of the significant tens of billions of dollars of debt this country faces—would run a mile from it. But, instead, the Australian Labor Party actually puts it up as a pious amendment to the bill that is before the House as some kind of pathetic, desperate grasp to say, 'Don't worry about the actual results; let's just keep all the discussion about principle. Don't worry about the fact that the execution of policy by the former Labor government yielded a spectacular failure. Don't worry about facts like that; let's just talk about why we believe as a matter of principle this should be done.'

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