Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I am not aware of the particulars that the senator has raised, but what I can say is that there have been a number of claims made about this important measure and that a number of threats have been made which, in my submission, are not well founded. They are based on a number of assumptions which are incorrect. I draw to your attention, Senator, that projects such as Gorgon in Western Australia have proceeded in the context of what has been a resources rental tax which has now been operating for many years. There are many factors at play in the decisions regarding mining. There are issues that go to questions of technical risk, there are issues that go to exchange rates and there is, of course, the fundamental issue as to whether or not there is a customer for the product that is being mined. We have seen that infrastructure bottlenecks have for years been limiting our capacity to respond to increasing demand, and that is why we are going to devote $5.6 billion from this new proposal towards permanent infrastructure funding that recognises the infrastructure needs of resources regions. We will be supporting resource explorations through a $1.1 billion resource exploration rebate. (Time expired)