Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

says, 'Don't worry, we'll reintroduce the carbon tax and that'll help to redress part of the problem.' But that is $550 on every household each year; it is a lot of money.

The other one the Labor Party has, which it claims is going to fix the budget, is keeping the mining tax. The mining tax is lesson 1 in how not to frame a tax. Swannie was proud of the mining tax, the member for Lilley was very proud of the mining tax. One of his great achievements was to introduce a tax that raises one per cent of what he forecast. Last quarter that mining tax raised $600,000. You know that is one per cent of what they thought it would do? And they said they would spread the benefits of the mining tax. That is 2½c for every Australian; that is spreading the benefits! The problem is the Labor Party committed $17 billion of expenditure against the mining tax that raises 2½c for every Australian. If the Labor Party thinks it can keep the mining tax to pay for $17 billion of expenditure, then by my calculation the mining tax would need to be in place for 7,083 years to raise the revenue just to pay for the Labor Party's expenditure against the mining tax over the next four years. Seven thousand years of mining tax! I tell you what: only the Labor Party could do it. It was incompetent in government; it is even more incompetent in opposition.

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