Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. In light of the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement that foreign corporations are paying only 13 per cent tax, is the minister aware that a good example of the counterproductive nature of foreign takeovers and the appallingly failed ‘marketism’ policies of this place is that the one million people living in North Queensland are now to get their milk from southern Queensland, 2,000 kilometres away, while North Queensland’s Malanda Milk, locked out of Woolworths and Coles, must travel 2,000 kilometres south? Is the minister further aware that Woolworths and Coles, with 83 per cent of the food market, are paying dutch auction prices to the dairy corporations? This oppressive pricing from the chains has seen 240 North Queensland farmers tortured down to just 60. Five dairy companies, all once Australian owned, are now, bar one, foreign owned. Finally, our six giant mining companies were all Australian owned pre-marketism but now all are foreign owned. Why should the super-destructive Henry mining tax be applied when a small increase in tax on all foreign corporations would ease the very real threat to the only vibrant industry Australia has left—mining?

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

I just want to clarify: was the member for Kennedy addressing this question to the Deputy Prime Minister?

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Deputy Prime Minister, yes. I am quite happy to go on—

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

Order! I call the Deputy Prime Minister.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. I assume it is to me because in the broad it raises matters associated with employment. I think that was the connection that the member for Kennedy was thinking of. I can understand that the member for Kennedy is concerned about a reaction in the community of Malanda relating to local milk supplies no longer being available for sale, with one of the big supermarket chains coming into town and consequently creating a circumstance where local milk will be transported thousands of kilometres and processed and transported back. I can understand his concern about that. I can also understand his concern about the implications of the resources super profits tax for employment.

Whilst I understand the member for Kennedy’s concerns are genuinely and personally deeply felt, and we have had the opportunity to discuss his concerns directly, the modelling for the resources super profits tax, and the modelling particularly of the impact on employment, shows that it will expand the resources sector and its output by 5.5 per cent and expand jobs in mining by seven per cent. So, whilst I do appreciate that the member is representing some concerns about marketing changes in his electorate that could be causing community concern, and I do understand he is raising some matters that are on his mind about the resources super profits tax, the modelling does show a growth in employment.