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

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to comments by the Chairman of Rio Tinto, who said yesterday:

“From the government’s side, some of the statistics that we have been confronted with in recent weeks can only be described as scandalous …

He also said it was ‘truly scandalous’. With the benefit of 24 hours since the Treasurer was made aware of flaws in his own arguments and his own numbers in his economic note of 9 May, will the Treasurer now disclose to the Australian people in dollar terms all the numbers behind the fancy pie charts and graphs in his documents?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand by all of the numbers and all of the charts in my economic note—

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

What are they?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and we know what they are, but those opposite do not want to understand what they mean, because what they mean is that the Australian people have not been getting a fair share, and what we have now seen in this House is that those opposite do not care. They simply do not care, so they are going to let the bounty of our resources just walk out the door. They do not care if it is reinvested in our community, they do not care whether it is reinvested in superannuation, they do not care about a lower company tax rate for tourism operators or the manufacturing industry—they do not care about any of that because they have sold out to the mining companies. Now, Phony Tony comes in here and—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Symon interjecting

Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hale interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the member for Sturt talks to himself, he should do it more softly. It would allow me the opportunity to respond—and he was bit unfortunate, because he was not the one that was delaying. And he is correct. The Treasurer will withdraw, and the members for Deakin and Solomon should take care. The Treasurer has the call, and I have asked him to withdraw.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Mr Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition comes in here and wants to pretend that he stands up for small business and families, but he is prepared to let a situation go on where the Australian people are not getting a fair share of the mineral resources that they own 100 per cent which can only be mined once and which are absolutely essential—

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order, and it goes to relevance: I asked the Treasurer to disclose all the numbers behind his own documents. That was the question.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Treasurer will relate his material to the question. The Treasurer.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I am going to the numbers behind the document, and that is what they find so uncomfortable, because the purpose of that central pie chart is to describe the situation where the Australian people have not been getting a fair share. But this seems to be completely irrelevant to those opposite. Nobody is seriously contesting this. Not even the mining industry is seriously contesting the fact that they need to pay a bit more because the underlying value of our resources has increased substantially and that, if we want to move forward as a modern economy, we should take those revenues and invest them in a lower corporate rate so we can meet the challenges of the mining boom mark 2. They are so embarrassed that they are opposing a lower corporate rate and at the same time they are proposing an increased corporate rate.

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

Mr Speaker—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am taking it that the Treasurer has sat down because he thinks I am going to give the call to the member for North Sydney—or has he concluded?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have concluded.

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

He’s finished?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat.