Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is not on purpose actually, but it is always fun, because Senator Ronaldson likes to be very dramatic in his presentation, and he is saying that he has other commitments outside the chamber, and that is fair enough. Here we are after five o'clock taking note of answers to questions on notice, but he should have paid some attention to his leader's contribution in the last debate that we had, and I note that you have ruled, Acting Deputy President McKenzie, that we are able to talk about that last debate in this session.

Senator Abetz chastised the government for making personal attacks. I think he was getting confused between Senator Wong and Senator Brandis, because it was actually Senator Brandis who indulged himself in some of the most personal attacks that I have heard here, and Senator Ronaldson continued to carry on like that. That just demonstrates to everybody who might have been listening to the last couple of hours the double standards that are constantly applied by the opposition in all matters of debate. They criticise the government for doing one thing and then do it themselves. They have no standard nor benchmark on which to measure themselves.

The debate we have just had was another classic example of this. We are debating a tax which the opposition do not want. They do not want it to raise a single cent because they did not want the tax at all in the first place. But they come in here and complain that it has not raised enough. They cannot have it both ways. It is just another of the many examples of the double standards applied by the opposition not only to this issue but also to every other issue across the board. They simply want to be negative about it but have that double standard. So which is it? Does the opposition say it raises too much tax or not enough tax? They do not seem to know. They seem to be quite divided on this point. They make impassioned arguments and complain about the tax not raising enough money, then very clearly say, 'We don't want it to raise any money.'

In fact, if we go back some time there were some of the most outrageous statements made by people—in fact, by the Leader of the Opposition. Do coalition members recall Mr Abbott blaming BHP's decision to put their Olympic Dam project on hold on the mining tax? That is what he said, 'Based on the mining tax,' because of the amount of money they thought was going to be raised by the mining tax. The head of BHP said at the time that that was not true and clearly it is not true now. But do you hear them complaining about that? No, because they are still conflicted about whether they want it to raise more or to raise less.

Clearly, the minerals resource rent tax has been raising revenue, although it has been impacted by a big drop in revenues, particularly in the third quarter of this year. As commodity prices have started to pick up, we have seen an increase in the amount of revenue being raised by this tax. This brings the coalition to the problem they have most, because they do not believe that these resources belong to the Australian people for the ultimate benefit of the Australian people. What they believe is that these resources belong to their friends: the mining magnates and the people they support and kowtow to. They believe it belongs to them and that the Australian public ought not to get the benefit of the resources that can only be dug up once and can only be sold once. They believe that they should take all the profit and that the Australian community should not get their fair share. We on this side of the chamber believe not only that the Australian community should get their fair share but also that they deserve their fair share. When we have gone through a boom—as it has been and as will come again; it will go in cycles and the booms will come and go—and when the high profits are there, a share of those profits should be distributed amongst the Australian people. They are their resources and they should be spent on building infrastructure, reforms and for the benefit of the Australian people. That is what we want to do. We on this side of the chamber believe in a fair go for the Australian people and a fair sharing of the resources that we own as a community on behalf of all Australians.