Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Obviously I am very aware of the effects of tax policy, having made my way in life as an accountant. I think one of the clear things to see in any tax policy is a comparative analysis of what happens if there is an alternative policy that an alternative government may have. I am very aware of the industries in the areas of the member for Capricornia and the member for Flynn and what is important to them. In the past that we have seen policies brought forward such as the resource super profits tax, which was designed by, it is imagined, Labor and the Greens and the Independents together. It came up with a 40 per cent tax on super profits. That meant that, on top of the 40 per cent tax on super profits, there was a corporate tax on what was left over, which meant that their effective tax rate went to around about 57 per cent. This was devastating on the future potential of places such as Moranbah, Dysart, Emerald and Clermont because, quite obviously, it showed an excessive tax rate. It was disastrous. It was so disastrous that, in the end, they changed their own ill thought out tax plan, because they knew that it was just not a flyer.

You could excuse them for having one bad idea, but they had a number of them. The carbon tax was yet another one of their crazy ideas. For those who worked at the QAL refinery at Gladstone and Rio's refinery at Yarwun or for the Boyne smelter, this was a massive hike on the price of electricity—and, as we know, aluminium is predominantly bauxite and needs a lot of electricity. What this did was put great uncertainties into the city of Gladstone and into Central Queensland, because it showed that, at that point of time, the Labor, Green and Independent government had no real understanding about the economics, the consequences of their economics. You might just think it stopped there, but of course it did not. They also had the overnight cessation of the live cattle trade, and of course with that we saw an effect on the price of cattle, one of the biggest industries in Central Queensland.

These were all the random policy objectives and the random policy approach of the government at the time, the Labor, Green and Independent government that did not know what it was doing. And now they are back at it again. Now we see their entree into negative gearing. Might I just remind people, especially in Queensland—the member for Dawson will be interested in this—that Mackay has the most negatively geared homes in the area. There are 5,755 people negatively gearing homes. Labor's most recent tax foray is devastating to them, to the 4,000 in Cairns and the 4,000 in Gladstone. It will affect them. You really do have to have a government that has got its head screwed on, and that is why the Australian people will stick with the one they have got.

See this speech in context