Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I was asked about the MRRT. The government will absolutely continue to proceed with the MRRT in the form that we agreed with the mining industry. We on this side of the House understand the importance of putting in place a tax such as the MRRT, which makes sure that Australians receive fair value and full value for the resources that they own 100 per cent. We also know that royalties are very inefficient taxes and they penalise many mines which are not as profitable. It is common sense to say that having a resource rent tax where those resources are superprofitable gives a fair return to the Australian people, and for us to spread that right around our community, and that is what the government intends to do.

I have also been asked by the member about the views of BHP on the investment environment in Australia, so I would like to quote from what Mr Kloppers said last night:

The South Australian government, the federal government and all agencies have worked with us to make this a reality. They have been absolutely wonderful partners to have and I cannot put that in more strong terms.

That is what the Chief Executive of BHP said yesterday. I will quote again from what he said yesterday:

… the tax environment for this particular project has not changed at all since we started working on it six or seven years ago.

So it should be pretty clear to those opposite what BHP thinks about the environment. The fact is that they are investing an enormous amount of money in our country, an enormous amount of money.

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