Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. Senator Brandis has tried to present to us that he is the cleverest man and is God's gift to the legal fraternity. He is obviously the most intelligent legal mind that has ever been produced in this chamber! He is a man that is knee-deep in horsehair and can advise the rest of us about what is right and what is wrong when it comes to the question of revenue in this country, because not one word has he said about the question of the revenue that was raised by this particular tax. He argues that he is very concerned about the welfare of the mining industry when it comes to the question of the revenue stream here. He argues that it has not raised enough money; that is the claim that they are making publicly. We know what crocodile tears those remarks are, because from day one of this whole exercise those opposite have opposed the resources rent tax. They have seen it as an opportunity to go down on bended knee to the wealthy and the vested interests in this country and to argue their case that they should pay no tax. That has been their proposition: they should pay no tax. That is the principle upon which they have based their entire approach. When it comes to actually helping out Australians in these times of need, what have we seen the opposition actually do? They have voted against tax breaks for 2.7 million small businesses, they have voted against supporting the retirement savings of 8.4 million working Australians, they have fought to deprive the country of the most needed infrastructure and they have done so in order to do the bidding of the most powerful and most deeply enriched vested interests in this country.

When we look at this whole issue, we do not hear one word of criticism of any state government that is imposing revenues in terms of its capacity through the royalties system. Not one word has been uttered about this. If it is such a shocking thing to tax the mining industry, why have we not heard a word about what is occurring with the states across this country? We know that the state royalties are an inefficient tax which actually discourage investment, but there is not one word from those opposite. We know that royalties do not ensure an adequate return to the community, and it is the community that owns these resources—it is not the states and governments but the people of this country that own these resources. Of course, there is not one word about the failure of the royalties system to ensure a proper return when commodity prices are high.

The Australian government has sought to engage the states on this matter, but what we know is that the states have taken full advantage of these circumstances. The New South Wales Treasurer, Mike Baird, has announced an increase in the state's mining royalties of approximately $1.5 billion over four years.