Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did want to respond to some of the remarks made by Senator Pocock in relation to tax which has been paid. I'm very keen to be reeled in by Senator Pocock in this respect. I do note that Exxon Mobil, one of the companies that has been referred to by Senator Pocock in his comments, has invested $41 billion in Australia. Isn't that a good thing? One hundred per cent of their Gippsland gas is sold locally and taxed in Australia, providing essential energy that Australian homes and businesses rely on. Senator Pocock referred to a local reservation policy. One hundred per cent of that Gippsland gas—Gippsland Basin Join Venture supplies 70 per cent of Victoria's natural gas, relied on for heating, cooking and manufacturing. And we're coming into this place and demonising them? They provide 70 per cent of Victoria's gas. You can't have a manufacturing industry at the moment without gas, and yet they're being demonised by Senator Pocock and those others sitting on the crossbenches. How much petroleum resource rent tax do you think they've paid since 1990? Five billion? Higher. Ten billion? Higher. Exxon Mobil has paid $15 billion just in petroleum resource rent tax. On average they pay $3 billion a year in all of the different categories of tax, royalties and excise, and we're demonising them?

Senator Pocock also referred to Glencore. Glencore does have a very close connection with my home state of Queensland, having, in a previous iteration, when it was known as Xstrata, taken over one of Queensland's best companies, Mount Isa Mines Limited. Each year they produce a Paymentstogovernments report. I would suggest to anyone who is listening to this debate, if you want to know the truth about how much tax is paid by companies, to do your own research and dig in, because you will find the information:

This report addresses our UK regulatory obligations under DTR 4.3A of the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, which were introduced to implement the payments to governments requirements provided for in the EU Transparency and Accounting Directives.

So, this document has been produced to meet Glencore's accounting obligations—legal obligations.

For the year ending 30 June 2022, this is how much tax the Glencore group paid Australia—listen very carefully—taxes on income, or corporate tax, $2,004,000,000; royalties, including to my home state of Queensland, over $2 billion, so we're up to $4 billion in tax; fees, $34.6 million; tax payments calculated in line with the UK transparency requirements, over $4 billion; customs/import/excise/export tax and duties, $383 million; payroll taxes, and that's that awful tax that companies have to pay to actually employ people, nearly $200 million; and taxes and duties relating to non-extractive activities, $482 million. So, the total they paid to federal and state governments for the year ending 30 June 2022—just reflect on this figure—is $5.135 billion.

In my previous contribution I referred to Woodside having contributed $4 billion, I think it was. If you add those two together, you get $9 billion of tax revenue, just from those two companies. What are those who are sitting at that end of the chamber proposing should be done to replace that tax revenue? That's $9 billion. Glencore, last financial year, to 30 June 2022, from their transparency report, paid $5.135 billion. So, great care needs to be taken, when we look at these reports that are produced in relation to this corporate group as to how much tax is paid. The best source of information is reports like this.

Then you will see that 41.66 per cent of the tax paid by Glencore all over the world was paid to the Australian federal government and Australian state governments—41.66 per cent. Now, if we were to introduce the policies that those at that end of the chamber would like to see introduced, including opposing this bill, do you know what would happen? These companies would take their business somewhere else. Where would they take it? You don't need to look too far, because they list all the other countries where they pay taxes. They could take their business to Argentina, where they paid $2.7 billion in tax, or Bolivia, where they paid $6.7 billion in tax, or Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, New Caledonia, Peru, South Africa or the United States—the rest of the world—where they paid half a billion dollars of tax. They have choices. They don't have to invest their capital in this country. And as we're sitting here having this debate, and their investment boards are making decisions about whether or not they invest $1 billion of capital in Australia or invest it in Argentina, Chile, Equatorial Guinea or wherever else they have assets, they will consider Australia's taxation regime in making those decisions. So, during the course of this debate, great care should be taken with respect to the practical consequences for everyday Australians, in terms of having gas supply and jobs, of the policies that are made in this place.