Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Labor in government is proud of its reforming record. I understand why the coalition wants to run away from this debate, because it was never up to the tough debates about reforming Australia. I also remind the House of the importance of the savings and retirement income debate and introducing the superannuation guarantee.

It is for those reasons that we have decided to take on another tough process of reform—the issue of Australia fronting up to the debate about a resource super profit tax, a profits based tax system, something that the minerals sector demanded that Australia put in place, something that was on the table for consideration under the Howard government, something that the Howard government ran away from and something that we are prepared to actually take forward to conclusion.

This debate is about certainty. It is about fairly rewarding risk and it is about providing the Australian community with a fair return for the nation’s resources. Think about the broader aspects of this debate. Yes, it is about a new approach to a profits based tax system in Australia, but it is also about infrastructure. The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government referred earlier today to demands by the Minerals Council of Australia for us as a nation to invest in infrastructure. Infrastructure, to the coalition, was not about fixing the Australian national railway system; it was not about investing moneys in Port Hedland roads; it was not about fixing Esperance port; it was about projects such as Tumbi Creek. We can all remember the ‘Regional Rorts’ program and the coalition’s approach to infrastructure. There we had a creek that drained itself, but what did the coalition do? It decided to allocate scarce Australian dollars to put in place a so-called draining opportunity.

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