Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I remind the Treasurer of his statement on Friday that the mining tax failed to raise enough revenue because:

Iron ore prices fell … So a very dramatic drop in commodity prices reflected in a drop in revenue.

Is the Treasurer aware that iron ore spot prices have in fact increased by about $30 a tonne since his own budget outlook, an increase of almost 25 per cent?

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

Yes, I am. I am absolutely aware of it. The member ought to be aware that it takes months for spot prices to flow through to MRRT revenues. It is not the case that you have a spot price on one day and it is reflected in the MRRT revenues the next, as the member has sought to imply. That is just factually incorrect and yet another example of the extent to which all those opposite will go to misrepresent the basic facts, not just of revenue in the case of the MRRT but the basic facts about our economy.

One of the reasons we are seeing so much bitterness, so much aggression, from those opposite about these questions of modelling, about these questions of forecasts and about these questions of revenue is that they are still smarting from the fact that two years ago they were sprung—they were sprung by our forecasters; they were sprung by our advisers—with an $11 billion hole in their election package which they had deliberately tried to hide from the Australian people right through the whole election campaign. That is why we have seen in this House, and particularly from the shadow Treasurer, a constant campaign against the advisers. They are carrying on as if somehow all these forecasts have been done by the government—nothing to do with our advisers, nothing to do with the fact that we are advised by the same professional public servants that they were advised by.

The truth is that we have been through one of the most volatile periods in the Australian economy and in the global economy in over 80 years. For political purposes those opposite seek to deny that. They seek to deny the global financial crisis. They seek to deny that there was an $11 billion hole in their election costings—the biggest bungle in Australian political history when it comes to election costings. That is why they are so embarrassed, and that is why they are conducting these sorts of campaigns about the forecasts which are provided in a responsible way to this government. It is also why they are so embarrassed about the fact that this government has been prepared to make the big calls on the economy.

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

I rise on a point of order, Madam Speaker. The Treasurer was asked about the mining tax forecasts. He has talked almost exclusively about the opposition. I would ask you to bring him back to the question he was in fact asked.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Treasurer has the call.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The Manager of Opposition Business is warned.

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

Everyone on this side of the House is proud that we have made the big calls on the economy, and we have got them right. On that side of the House you have got them comprehensively wrong. If you had had your way during the global financial crisis, unemployment would have been through the roof and we would not be talking about solid growth and job creation in the Australian economy. All of that behaviour from those opposite is about camouflaging— (Time expired)