Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

So here we go. The minister should go out of his way to see Treasurer Swan and say, 'Listen, Wayne, this is the new era of openness and transparency that the Prime Minister has promised, and we had better start answering some questions.' You had better start answering some questions about the mining tax revenue estimates and the cost of all the promises that you have attached to it, because you are not going to be able to get away with it. People inside Treasury know that the mining tax is a fiscal train wreck in the making. People inside Treasury know not only that there is a serious question mark around the mining tax revenue estimates but also that it is highly volatile revenue which is downward trending over time. Treasury know that these are the best terms of trade in 140 years and that it is likely that over time the revenue from iron ore and coal production will trend downwards—it will be volatile, but it will trend downwards. They also know that all of the promises that Labor have irresponsibly attached to that revenue source are fixed and upward trending. All of the costs that Labor have attached to the mining tax revenue, which is volatile and downward trending, are fixed and upward trending. This is an absolute fiscal train wreck in the making.

This is typical Labor. These are the reasons that, more than three months after Treasury took these questions on notice, we still do not have any answers. The government is too embarrassed to come clean with the Australian people about the absolute disaster and dog's breakfast that is the dodgy mining tax deal negotiated between the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Resources and Energy and three managing directors of major companies in an absolutely unprecedented fashion. To get herself out of a political bind at the time, the Prime Minister went through an absolutely inappropriate process that should never be allowed to stand as a precedent for tax policy development in our great country.