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

I move:

That the bill be laid aside.

Today, I am moving that the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013, the 2013 Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill, be laid aside. The 2013 Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill has been twice introduced into this parliament. It was first negatived by the Senate on 25 March this year. The bill was introduced a second time on 23 June and on 17 July the Senate passed three amendments to the bill that the House disagreed to when the bill was returned.

The bill is being laid aside because it cannot be progressed in its current form. In particular, the government cannot accept the three Senate amendments to the bill to retain in full the low-income superannuation contribution, the income support bonus and the schoolkids bonus. These measures were to be funded by the proceeds of the mining tax. As we now know, the failure of the mining tax to return any meaningful revenue meant the former government had to borrow money to pay for these unsustainable commitments. Retaining these three measures add a further $9.6 billion to the nation's deficit over the forward estimates. We will, therefore, maintain our aim of repealing the mining tax and the measures it was supposed to fund. We will set aside the 2013 Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill because a vote to retain the savings measures funded by the mining tax is a vote to retain the failed mining tax.

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