Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I draw the Leader of the Opposition’s attention to my answer to his first question, concerning the impact of the range of measures contained in the government’s response to the Henry-commissioned report. They go to preferential taxation arrangements now for the exploration industry, a new tax regime for smaller miners in the sense that they are now advantaged by a tax on profits rather than a tax on volume, as well as the overall impact of the decision to bring down the company tax rate. I would draw the Leader of the Opposition’s attention, again, to the independent modelling commissioned by the Treasury through Econtech, which demonstrates that putting these measures together results in an overall increase in the level of mining activity in the economy. It makes that projection at 5.5 per cent over time. It is done by taking all those individual inputs into account.

The second thing I would say to the Leader of the Opposition is that it is inevitable when you seek to bring about a new taxation regime for the mining industry in Australia, and one that involves higher taxes for a number of participants in that industry, they are going to object. They are going to complain, because they are going to be paying more money to the Australian people via the general revenue. For the overall impact on the Australian community, it is important to bear this in mind. What we are doing is ensuring that there is a fair share for the mining industry but, equally, a fair share for the Australian people, who own this resource.

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