Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer: I refer the Treasurer to the government's plan to abolish the mining tax. Will the Treasurer tell the House what consequences will flow from the repeal for the 3,800 constituents in my electorate who are directly employed by the mining industry?

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

I thank the honourable member and recognise what a is magnificent contribution the mining industry makes to his electorate and the people of South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Victoria—I am not sure about the ACT. There are 270,000 people directly employed in the mining industry in Australia and over 800,000 other Australians rely on the mining industry for related employment.

It is hugely important for the generation of wealth right across the nation, representing around 55 per cent of merchandise exports from Australia. Yet it is 10 per cent of GDP. So the mining industry is hugely important. It helped, unquestionably, to get us through the challenging times of the global financial crisis—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Well, I can tell you, it wasn't old Swanee who got us through; it was a hell of a lot of iron ore that went out the door. The member for Lilley and the member for Griffith, what did they do? They wanted to tax it. As the member for Lilley said, 'It was a historic reform to tax the mining industry.' Damn right it was, because, and I quote him:

We brought a super profits tax in precisely at the time the super profits disappeared.

That is another great 'Swanism'. The fact is the mining tax actually leaves the budget worse off. I know it is very hard for our friends in the Greens to understand this. I heard the member for Melbourne this morning on the doors and I nearly choked on my Weeties. I only have three Weeties these days—

A government member interjecting—

Three small ones. I heard the member for Melbourne say, 'We need to have a mining tax to generate all that revenue to get the debt down.' The problem is that the mining tax actually does not benefit the budget; it costs the budget $13½ billion. Here is an interesting concept for the member for Melbourne and the members of the Labor Party. If you have only this much revenue and you have this much expenditure against it, you leave the budget worse off. The mining tax leaves the budget $13½ billion worse off. So the best thing that the Labor Party and their mates in the Greens could do—sorry, their mate in the Greens—would be to get rid of the damn mining tax and let the mining industry get on with the job.