Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Cormann always likes to bang on about the mining tax. There are a couple of things I find interesting about this. The first is this: one of the significant economic challenges that we have in this nation at the moment is that we are effectively exchanging a non-renewable capital asset for an income stream. That is what the sale of resources is. That that side of politics would say that we do not deserve a better income stream for Australians is extraordinary. The second point that I always think is interesting is that Senator Cormann likes to rail against mining tax but only the federal one. He is very quiet if it is an increase in mining royalties proposed by a Liberal state government. All of a sudden the sovereign risk, the sky falling in and all of the calamitous things which will occur if there is a further tax imposition on mining go out the window if it happens to be a Liberal state government imposing it. That is an extraordinary double standard, Senator Cormann.