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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I am unaware of the circumstances surrounding Mr Kelly’s business, but we will now investigate the circumstances surrounding his business. I would also say in response to the Leader of the Opposition that, if he consulted the documents attached with the Treasury’s tax reform package released on 2 May, he would see that they go to the future modelling impact on the mining industry as a whole: first of all, the increase in overall investment in the mining industry by between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent; and, secondly, the overall increase in employment in the mining industry by seven per cent. I therefore am always reluctant to simply take anything which is said across the dispatch box by those opposite, particularly given the question asked just before by the member for Sydney—which went so well!—without actually further testing the facts.

I also note that, if the question asked was about developments in the state of Queensland, I should raise our good friend Mr Clive Palmer again as well. Remember, on the question of impact on projects, Clive, the patron saint of the Liberal-National Party—at least the funder-in-chief of the Liberal-National Party—

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