Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

In the last couple of weeks the Queensland budget came down. It showed a significant increase in royalties, as you'd expect, given the strength of the coalmining sector. Coal royalties increased by $1.3 billion in that budget. That has helped fund essential services in that state. Through things like the GST redistribution process it will also help the whole country fund essential health, education and other public services. If we did not have a mining sector, we would not be able to fund the standard of living we all expect right around Australia. Not just in those states with strong mining industries that have seen significant investment in mining but right around Australia we rely on sectors like mining that provide wealth and can pay taxes to make sure we can have a very high standard of living.