Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the importance of repealing the mining tax? What is the benefit to the people of Western Australia and elsewhere—in particular, to the people of Durack—when governments pursue stable and consistent policymaking?

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

It is a very good question, and it is no surprise that it comes from a Western Australian who went to the last election advocating the repeal of the carbon tax and the mining tax, because it is in the best interests of the people of Western Australia to get rid of those taxes. The member for Durack is not the only person I listen to carefully from Western Australia. I have been thinking carefully about the member for Perth over there, who has just had a meteoric rise; she is now not just a spokesperson for Perth but for the Labor Party in the whole of Western Australia. I reflected carefully on her words last week when she said, 'I think it would be fair to say the mining tax has not done the job that it was designed to do.'

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

That's what I think. It was not doing the job it was designed to do.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist.

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

So I went back to the original version of the mining tax and found out that the original version next year was meant to raise $12½ billion in one year. Then of course in the 2010 election it was reduced down to $6½ billion. Then, in the old member for Lilley's second-last budget, he halved it to $3.2 billion and then he reduced it in his last budget to $1 billion. Then, just before the election, Labor said: 'Don't worry. It will raise somewhere between $300 million and $800 million.' But, all the time, this tax has $16 billion of expenditure against it.

And they are not very good with maths. They usually promote the people who are the worst at maths, so I think the member for Perth has a meteoric rise ahead of her, because she said, only on the weekend, when asked about how much the mining tax is raising, 'Well, I think we are getting, I think, sort of around $300,000, $500,000, $500 million a year. So it is not an extreme tax.' Who would have done this transcript? The office of the member for McMahon apparently typed up the transcript. But it gets better. She said, 'Look, the companies that paid the tax—BHP, Rio, FMG—they have all recorded record profits.' The only problem is: two of those three companies have said they are not paying any of the tax. Rio said in a report to this parliament that they put it to the exchange; they are not paying any mining tax. FMG said they are not paying any mining tax. The member for Perth is on a meteoric rise. You could be the Leader of the Opposition within 12 months.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

The best numeracy skills in the entire Labor Party rest in the member for Perth and her seat.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist.

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

The bottom line is: this is a tax that is bad for Western Australia. The fact is that, if the Labor Party does not understand the tax, then the Western Australians will not buy it.