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

The member for North Sydney seeks to intervene to suggest that somehow it is unique to this country that there is a debate about the future of tax change. It is not. The underpinning point put by the member for Curtin before was that somehow our mining industry was suffering in relation to that of other countries. To the extent that the stock exchanges are measurements of this, I draw her and his attention again to what is happening in Canada, Brazil and around the world in terms of the performance of our mining stocks relative to the rest.

I go back to the core point, which is that those opposite stand in this place as defenders of the interests of Clive Palmer. Clive Palmer says that there should be no change to the existing tax regime for the Australian mining industry. This government stands for reform of the tax system in Australia. This government stands for bringing in a profits based tax for the mining industry in Australia.

In this country, we have the mining industry, its peak body and the heads of most of the major mining companies saying that that is the sort of reform—a profits based regime—that we need for the future. Those opposite, led by the Leader of the Opposition and Clive Palmer, say that it is all fine and dandy. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition goes further and says that they are already paying too much tax. Nobody in this country believes that. No-one in this country accepts the view that the poor old miners cannot fork out an extra dollar to help working families. It does not matter where they are in this country, people see this fear campaign for what it is. We stand for facts in this debate; those opposite stand for fear.

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