Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The short answer to Senator Milne's question is no. The longer answer, of course, is that it was the Labor-Green government that put in place a tax—the so-called minerals resource rent tax—based on an assumption that the blue sky was going to last forever. The Labor Party and the Greens put in place a tax that hurt one of the most important industries for our economic growth into the future, recklessly and irresponsibly hurting an industry that is generating jobs and generating massive export income, assuming that record terms of trade and record commodity prices would last forever. Of course, the situation ended up where we always said it would end up. It ended up in tears. The Labor Party and the Greens put in place a tax which did not raise any revenue, when the Labor Party and the Greens had already raised all the revenue they thought it would raise—and more. We on this side of the chamber are implementing our economic action strategy to build a stronger, more prosperous economy so that everyone can get ahead. We are building a stronger, more prosperous economy to create jobs, and we are doing it by getting rid of these bad taxes, by reducing red tape costs for business by $1 billion a year by pursuing free trade opportunities. Minister Robb has already been able to sign three free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and China, which will help us put our economy on a broader foundation, which will help us to diversify our economic base.

We are ensuring that our economy can be more competitive internationally again by removing the lead that the Labor Party and the Greens have been putting in our saddle bag, by bringing down the tax burden, by reducing the cost of doing business and by pursuing better opportunities through trade for us to grow a stronger, more prosperous economy.