Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for your question. I have seen media reports that the mining industry is to spend a figure of up to $100 million on its advertising campaign to defeat the legislation on the resource super profits tax. I have seen those reports. Whatever the figures are, they are certainly very substantial. The issue of the tax deductibility of the costs of the mining industry’s advertising campaign is an interesting one. It has not had much, if any, attention that I can recall in the media. Spending up to $100 million on a political campaign to defeat the government’s proposals is obviously a significant level of expenditure. I note that the effective company tax rate in the mining sector is 17 per cent.