Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am focusing on the mining industry. If you will sit there rather than play with your BlackBerry I will give you a real lesson on the mining industry. As I said, when it comes to considering the realities of deals, if we had the Western Australian Nationals come in and ratchet up their demands on the Liberal state government in Western Australia and say, ‘We need to increase royalties by 20 per cent or 30 per cent,’ how could we budget appropriately? That is why the deal that is on the table with Rio Tinto, BHP-Billiton and Xstrata is a realistic deal. And it is a good deal.

Let us look at what some of the industry leaders have said about it. I know there is a lot more work to be done by the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, and the BHP Chairman, Don Argus, but let us look at some of those left-wing commentators, like our comrade Mitch Hooke from the Minerals Council. What did he say? He said it is ‘a positive outcome for Australia’. BHP Billiton’s Marius Kloppers even said he would work constructively with this government. He said:

We are encouraged that the MRRT design is closer to our frequently stated principles of sound tax reform, in that the proposed tax will be prospective in its treatment of profits from our iron ore and coal businesses, and not apply to the other commodities in our portfolio.

We work, and those opposite wreck. That is the reality of this. As I said, I looked at this MPI and thought about the number of industries that we could have talked about and our great relationship with them—things like the NBN—but, no, there was no mention of those. Anyone who understands the opportunities in the future for a smart Australia knows that we will not get there by lowering wages—that low road way is the way of the past. We need to be a smarter country, not investing in firing up your Atari 64 and hoping that will get us through. We need a broadband network, because, as I think the minister pointed out in question time today, 85 per cent of manufacturing productivity gains come from improvements in ICT. Broadband is the way of the future that will support the mining industry. (Time expired)

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