Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to again defend the state of Queensland and the $2 million worth of infrastructure funding that the resource super profits tax will bring to Queensland’s roads, rails and ports and to dispel the myth of Senator Parry’s MPI about ‘the Labor government’s decision to spend $38 million advertising their proposed new super tax’.

I find it entertaining that the opposition have the nerve to stand up in this chamber and make comments about the government’s consultation processes. On the one hand, if we do not make the public aware of our policies they say there is a lack of consultation. On the other hand, when we do share our information with our valued constituents, they say we are wasting taxpayer funds. I find that amazing, coming from a Liberal Party which spent $254 million in 2007 alone on their election campaign and an amazing $420 million to explain the GST in 2000. To put that into perspective, that is $420 million spent on explaining their GST as opposed to $38 million the government has approved for explaining our RSPT. The Howard government also spent $121 million of taxpayer funds to advertise Work Choices, a policy which hurt our working families and enabled employers to dismiss employees without a valid reason, to strip conditions from the award system, to place employees on woeful individual contracts, and the list goes on.

The Rudd government cares about our working families and how taxpayer funds are spent, and that is why we have cut expenditure on government advertising. In fact, in 2008 we spent a third of the amount that the Howard government spent in 2007. In 2009 we spent less than half the amount that the Howard government spent in 2007. We introduced guidelines on how taxpayer funds should be spent and principles as to how materials can be presented. These guidelines make sure that government advertising is authorised, properly targeted and non-political. This initiative is a far cry from the Howard government’s handling of their campaign funds, which did not have this type of scrutiny. When the opposition were in government they were able to produce campaign material which unashamedly endorsed the Liberal Party, and the ministers themselves approved campaigns.

This government makes no apologies for defending the future prosperity of this nation against a massive scare campaign funded by some companies and mining magnates like LNP funder Clive Palmer. By bringing this up in the chamber today, it shows that the opposition’s puppet strings are being pulled by Mr Palmer. It shows that they care more about their next campaign funding than the national economic interest. The opposition do not care that the RSPT will help working Australians increase the amount of money they will be retiring with, that it will provide vital infrastructure for our mining states and that it will provide a tax break for small businesses and an instant write-off on assets worth less than $5,000. In fact, representatives from the mining industry have acknowledged that they can pay more tax. On 3 June the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson said:

A number of major mining company CEOs have said to me, not just over the last couple of weeks, they all knew a tax reform package was coming, that they’ve had a good decade and they’re in a position to actually pay more tax.

The opposition has also pushed that the RSPT will hurt the mining industry and shares. This misinformation is clearly just that: misinformation. Just yesterday, Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed agreements worth $10 billion, covering resources and energy.

The Australian today reported that Vice-President Xi acknowledged ‘huge potential for growth’ in energy and resources and went on to pay tribute to Australia’s ‘sound investment market’ whilst encouraging close partnerships on energy, metals and environmental protection. Mr Xi also encouraged parties to ‘oppose trade and investment protectionism’. Fortescue Metals Chief Executive Officer Andrew Forrest, who has been vocal about his opposition to the RSPT, was also present at the signing of the agreement and was given the opportunity to meet Mr Xi. Incidentally, I note that Andrew Forrest’s own shares in his company rose by 20c to $4.57 per share. The Minister for Trade, Simon Crean, said that the RSPT would ‘encourage further investment’ and that the signing of these agreements ‘put paid to the exaggerated claims by some mining executives’. Mr Crean also stated that ‘There has never been any suggestion by the Chinese that it would harm investment in Australia’. The article also stated that Rio Tinto Executive Doug Ritchie said that as long as security and stability were provided by government policies, companies would invest.

The opposition’s claims that share prices would drop because of the RSPT is more scaremongering. In fact, Rio Tinto’s share price is now higher than what it was when the RSPT was announced. It is clear the opposition does not really support its own claims when one of their frontbenchers, the member for Dickson, purchased $2,000 worth of shares in BHP. This government is passionate about giving our Australian families a share in the profits of the mining industry. Australian citizens own 100 percent of this nation’s natural resources and, with mining companies making massive profits of up to $80 billion in the last decade, is it not time our nation shared in this success?

We are being targeted for our spending on this campaign, but what is the government to do when the opposition and the mining industry, which is more focused on reining in profits, is spending millions on misinforming the public about the RSPT? It is up to the government to clear up these myths and to rightfully inform the public of what our policies are and what they mean to our nation. Australians want to know what the impact of the government’s RSPT will be and what it will do to strengthen our economy. The Rudd government is passionate about standing up for our citizens and, even though we are faced with a multimillion dollar scare campaign, we will continue to stand up for working Australians and small businesses, to protect them from the misinformation and scaremongering and to ensure they receive the right information.

Our public campaign, which has already featured on TV, radio and print, provides actual facts to the community about the RSPT and provides them with a contact base where they are able to seek more information. We have held meetings with representatives from the mining industry and we have been nothing but upfront with Australians about the RSPT. We have established the Resource Tax Consultation Panel and have been open at every step—a practice which demonstrates our government’s willingness to discuss this very important tax reform and a practice which is completely different to the previous government’s.

Because of the grubby scaremongering and misinformation being put out by some of the mining industry, the Treasurer applied to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Ludwig, to allow the government to defend itself and inform the public of the real facts. According to the campaign advertising guidelines, the Cabinet Secretary can exempt campaigns on ‘the basis of a national emergency, extreme urgency or other compelling reason’. This secretary granted his exemption on 24 May, and on 28 May this was tabled in parliament. The reason for the exemption was that:

… there is an active campaign of misinformation about the proposed changes to our tax system … Australians are concerned about how these changes will affect them.

… as the tax reforms involve changes to the value of some capital assets, they impact on financial markets …

The exemption was granted on two grounds: firstly, the extreme urgency, the need, to address misinformation that is being distributed about the reforms; and, secondly, the compelling reason that these reforms impact on financial markets. For the sake of our nation’s prosperity, it is time for those opposite to stop the scaremongering and enable the public to hear the real facts on how the resource super profits tax will provide important infrastructure for our mining states, boost the economy, increase the superannuation of our working Australians from nine per cent to 12 per cent, keep people in jobs and help build sustainable growth. The RSPT is a sensible tax reform which will benefit the Australian economy.

Previous speakers from this side of the chamber referred to the legacy of the Howard government. Senator Collins pointed out that the previous government spent $2 billion during that reign on this type of advertising—in stark comparison to this government. I do not think there are any parallels to be drawn or issues to be made about who is outspending whom. So, once again, I think the opposition need to cease their scaremongering campaign and come back on track in terms of delivering the true facts on what this RSPT is essentially about.