Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Birmingham. Later in that same week, the Australian newspaper reported:

Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson has admitted the design of the mining tax is responsible for its failure to generate revenue, not the falling commodity prices, higher currency and state royalties blamed by the government.

In explosive testimony to the Senate economics committee yesterday, Dr Parkinson said Treasury had compiled its budget forecasts in ignorance of the real cost of concessions agreed to by Wayne Swan and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson when they renegotiated the tax in private with the chief executives of BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata in mid-2010.

I think this is an important point. How critical have changing commodity prices been? Do they give the government a defence for this significant policy failure? While the government now point to changes in commodity prices, the risk of commodity price falls did not stop them from boasting at the time this tax was brought in that it would be a multibillion dollar revenue windfall. It did not stop them from putting forward a variety of programs to be funded through this tax initiative.

On 1 November 2012, the West Australian put to rest the suggestion that commodity prices are the only cause for concern in this revenue mix-up:

He—

the Treasurer—

is now trying to create the impression that lower commodity prices are the only reason the MRRT has not delivered any revenue so far. That is part of the story, but there is much, much more.