Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his answer yesterday when, in defence of his great big new tax on mining, he said, ‘Whichever way you cut the cake the return to the Australian people via the taxation system is infinitely less than it was a decade ago.’ How does the Prime Minister reconcile that statement with data compiled by Access Economics, the Treasury, the ATO and the ABS, which show that the total tax take from mining over the last decade has increased from $2.6 billion to $21.9 billion? Will the Prime Minister explain how he can describe tax revenues, which have increased by more than eight times, as ‘infinitely less’?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank very much the member for Kalgoorlie, who has already made a very strong contribution to the tax reform debate for the mining industry, for his question. The bottom line is that only the Leader of the Opposition in this place says that the mining companies are paying too much tax—only the Leader of the Opposition.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ah, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, she of national security credentials, interjects and says that in fact there is someone else. But I thought that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said that they were paying just enough tax, whereas the shadow minister for infrastructure—good old Senator Barnaby Joyce—said that they could be paying more tax. The member for Kalgoorlie entered with the fourth position, which was that everyone in the opposition should be able to have their own tax policy. That was a great intervention on the doors the other day. Only the Leader of the Opposition says that the mining companies of Australia are paying too much tax. We know that the member for Kalgoorlie is out there trying to back him up.

The bottom line is that they can pay more tax. The government stands by the data that it has presented. I would suggest to those opposite that they engage in their own independent analysis as opposed to simply running out one piece of propaganda after another put out by the MCA. This government stands for tax reform to deliver better super for working families, better tax cuts for small business, reducing the company tax rate and better infrastructure for Australia’s regions for the future. That is what we stand for; that is what you stand opposed to.