Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the forward warning that seems to be coming from the other side. I think it is much more tainted with optimism and hope about what will occur rather than any general advantage. Nonetheless, this tax is about having a fair taxation system in our country. This is an area which is looking at a fair contribution. That is all that is being asked. We are looking at profits that are super profits and we are looking at getting a fair return on the resources of our country.

What is not surprising—and we are absolutely prepared for it because we have seen it over generations—is that whenever there is the introduction of a new tax there are the grim forebodings of the future and the outrageous statements about what will happen. We will hear that the sky will come tumbling down and the quarries will be filled in. What we are talking about is ensuring that in this country there should be a fair return to this country and the people living in the community for the resources with which we know we are deeply blessed with. We are not asking anything more than that. What we are talking about is that people are part of it.

We hear about the fact that there is no knowledge of the industry but the industry is involved in the process. We have a situation where now, after due process, the government makes a budget decision and decides that this is one way of taxation for our community. It is not an unusual process. It is one that has been used by many governments over many years. The Treasurer and the industry are going to set up a process where the detail will be worked out and where people can be engaged in the area so that it will not be imposed on them arbitrarily.

Companies that are making profits out of the mining industry in this country will have clarity about the tax they will pay and they will have clarity about what constitutes royalties and what does not. We consistently hear about this confusion. The process will be that the new tax will be introduced; no one has hidden from that. There is almost a proposal that this is a hidden tax—it is not. It has been clearly put forward. There is one industry that will be affected and the process will be there to work out and clarify these details.

I certainly heard the minister say on a number of occasions in answers to questions today that the KPMG modelling was looking at what this would bring into the country in the future: it would help the mining industry; it would help our community. Some of the profits that will be coming out of this taxation will be reinvested into important things in the community, such as the infrastructure processes. It is very important to the regions about which we are speaking, and to the regions I look after in Queensland, that they have absolute assurance about the road process and the improvement in rail. I know that my comrade Senator Hutchins will be concentrating on this area.