James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the government and their tax treatment of the resources sector. They've certainly had a change of heart since the Rudd era, when they taxed the mining industry into oblivion. We'll never forget the attacks on the sector that the Rudd government undertook when they sought to bring in their mining tax and sap all confidence out of sector and from the companies that were making investment decisions and competing against other economies around the world.

We know that, in mining and resources, like anything in economics, there's always a finite resource for infinite demand. There are a lot of places in the world that are pitching for investment in the mining and resources sector, and Australia is but one of them. It's vital to our economy. The Labor Party have had a very chequered history when it comes to the way in which they've introduced sovereign risk to that sector. The Rudd government's mining tax is but one of many such risks.

The sector certainly do not view the government as being friendly towards them. They view them with a great deal of suspicion. The sector are concerned about what their future might be under a Labor government. They're starting to find out more and more that this government is about picking winners and issuing press releases saying that they support particular things. However, the actions of the government and performance of the government tends to lead to a dramatically different outcome.

Now, the Liberal Party is the party of low tax. We want taxes to be as low as they can be. We want them to be as fair as they can be as well. We think that everyone should pay their fair share of tax, and you'd hope that that wasn't a point in dispute. We are also not the party of picking winners and suggesting that the government should be intervening in the free, proper operation of a market, because we'd like to see investments being decided on the basis of their merit. We'd also like Australia to be a safe and reliable investment destination. Those are the principles that we bring to policy decisions in this country, particularly industry policy decisions.

The mining and resources sector, of which the critical minerals sector is a part, know full well that they can rely on coalition governments to have steady, reliable, sensible policies that are about supporting businesses, giving them confidence to invest in our economy and giving them confidence that the policy settings that are in place when they make investment decisions will endure and will stay in place as time goes forward. The investment profile and horizon of this sector, like that of many, is measured in at least decades. When you reflect on the very chequered approach and attitudes of this Labor government and, in particular, members of this government, that consistency is not there.

While I hope that the Labor Party will not be in government for much longer, even worse than that would be the bigger threat of a future Labor government that is not in government alone but is instead in government in coalition with another party—the Greens. If you're in the mining and minerals resources sector, the most frightening concept for your business and for the tens of thousands of Australians that work directly in those businesses, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Australians that work indirectly in that sector, is a Labor-Greens government. That would mean the end of that sector entirely. That's what the price of the Greens would be in doing a deal to form minority government if the unhappy situation plays out as the polls are currently indicating. That is on the cards. The mining and resources sector could have no more nightmarish a scenario than that of a Labor-Greens government where the Greens hold that minority Labor government hostage on policies around mining. We already know what the attitudes of the Greens are on that topic, and we also know that they will insist on commitments that involve the ending of so many of those vitally important businesses.

This motion talks about the critical minerals sector and mining and resources. We, in the coalition, have a completely unimpeachable history of backing that sector, of supporting that sector, of giving that sector policy certainty and of never introducing sovereign risk to that sector. We're the only political force in this country that can say that.

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