Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the Leader of the Opposition's question is as follows. First, the Leader of the Opposition, if he spent any time following economic matters, if he in any way studied the economic debate, would know that we have been critical of the reckless approach of state governments to royalties. Interestingly enough, the opposition that has always criticised an efficient profits-based tax in the minerals sector has gone tick, tick, tick to Liberal royalty increases around the country. We have been concerned about increases in these inefficient taxes and we have asked the GST Distribution Review to look at the matter. We have received their conclusions, and they are that the current treatment of royalties under the MRRT is both unsustainable and undesirable. That is a reference to what state Liberal governments are doing. We have said that through the Heads of Treasury process we will work on that with state counterparts in coming months. If the Leader of the Opposition in any way kept up with economic matters and economic debate, he would be well aware of that. The Leader of the Opposition should also recognise that a profits-based tax is more efficient than royalties, and if he is concerned about these questions then he should take them up with state Liberal counterparts.

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