Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. The MRRT is an important, long-term reform for our children and our grandchildren. Let's be very clear, Mr President, those opposite want the level of collection of the tax to be zero. They are pledged to repealing it. They are pledged to repealing it. Clearly, despite claims from those opposite, the MRRT has been raising revenue, although this has been impacted by the big drop in prices in the third quarter of last year. While recovering slightly these depressed commodity prices have continued to impact through to the end of the second quarter. As commodity prices have started to pick up, we have seen an increase in the amount of revenue being raised, but, of course, it takes months for a change in the spot price to be fully reflected in MRRT revenues, as resource trades can be conducted on monthly or even quarterly averages.

As a matter of course, Treasury and the ATO always look at the operation of taxes and, in particular, new ones. The MRRT will be no different. Remember that the MRRT is a profits based tax that raises more revenue when profits are higher and less when they are lower, but they are not designed to raise zero revenue like the position of those opposite—those opposite who do not want to share the wealth of this country among the many; they just want to look after a small number of their corporate mates. So, this is very similar to the PRRT, a profit based tax that has been around for over 25 years. (Time expired)