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

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the Deloitte WA share index, underpinned by Western Australian mining companies, which fell 12.6 per cent in May, significantly more than any other major international share index. Does the Prime Minister accept that he was wrong when he claimed the supertax on mining had no impact on the share values of mining companies and on the retirement incomes of millions of Australians?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and I inform the House that I am advised that since the end of April the US market has fallen by eight per cent, the UK market by 6 per cent, the euro markets by five per cent, Hong Kong by five per cent, Japan by nearly 11 per cent, and Australia has been down by just over six per cent. That is the first point. Can I also go to the second point, which I partly referred to before: Australia’s resources stocks have been down over the same period by about five per cent. That is less than the overall ASX. Let’s just be very clear about that.

Furthermore—and I draw this to the honourable member’s attention, because facts are a problem when you are running a fear campaign—over the same period of time the Canadian resource stocks have been down by about six per cent and Australian stocks by five per cent. Can I just say to those opposite: I do not think there is a debate in Canada at the moment about tax reform in the mining industry. I would suggest to her that she actually pay attention to factual analysis of what is happening around the world. The member for North Sydney sought before, frankly, to mislead the House in terms of key facts concerning projects. We have had that now from the member for Curtin—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the Prime Minister has just stated that one of the members of the opposition has sought to mislead the House. I think it would help the good order of this House if he withdrew that comment.

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

Within the practices of the House, statements like that have been made. People with memories, who have been here quite a while, know that a substantive motion is required if other phrases are used.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, am I to take it that it is okay for the Prime Minister to say that the member for North Sydney was misleading the House?

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s what you used to do.

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

Order! The Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance has helped me out because I was going to personalise it by saying a former Leader of the House should know that those who have been responsible on either side for the business would know that the practice of this House is that the expression ‘mislead’ is quite often used. It has been the practice of this House that, if the accusation has been that a member has deliberately misled the House, that requires a substantive motion. That is the way in which this House has conducted its business in the past. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker—

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

Bring on the motion.

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

If Joe’s feelings are hurt, of course I will withdraw.

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

Order! The Prime Minister will refer to members by their parliamentary titles.

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

If the feelings of the member for North Sydney are hurt, of course I will withdraw to accommodate the House. Can I also say in response to what the member for Curtin was saying before that I draw her attention to a statement made quite recently by the chief currency strategist of the CBA who, when talking about share market movements in recent times, said:

These are sort of factors that have been going on which are not at all related to the mining tax. And just to further push that point home, some of the shares of the big offshore mining companies such as Vale—

that is the big company from Brazil—

have fallen by a similar magnitude.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Vale!

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

I defer to the Portuguese pronunciation skills of those opposite. Can I say therefore that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has sought to construct an argument based around the share market impact of mining stocks. Firstly, as far as the Australian index is concerned, it has generally performed better than most other comparable indexes. Secondly, in terms of our mining stocks, they have performed better than the Brazilian company Vale that I just referred to as well as the Canadian exchange, and I referred to those figures before.

It was very good to see the member for Curtin, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, out there engaged in her protest activities the other day in Perth. It was a bit a like protest by Prada I thought. You had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition out there campaigning hard in a designer type demonstration. It was good. It was effective. The message was heard clearly. But I would say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: don’t let the facts get in the road of a good fear campaign.