Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They were very enlightening words from the member for Oxley; I found them fascinating. Some of the figures you were tossing around were also of great interest. When I was a young man it was understood there were two certainties in life: death and taxes. Since then I have learnt through experience that Labor governments do their very best to ensure that the second of these, taxes, remains an absolute certainty in Australia. But this Labor government is groundbreaking in ways that no other Labor government has been. This government has been the first to prove that there is not necessarily certainty in taxes and that simply introducing a new tax will not necessarily result in government.

Last year the government unveiled what it thought would be its best achievement: tax changes to the mining sector. The mining tax became the Labor government's proverbial crown jewels. This government has had a spectacular fall from grace as it has been announced that its prized reform package has raised a pittance in revenue. Of the mere $126 million raised by the tax—once you take out the $40 million in company tax payments and $50 million in admin costs which have been removed—there is almost nothing left. The whole charade of the mining tax has not been worth the time and the effort that it cost the government to implement. This result is certainly a far cry from the Treasurer's proclamation last year that the 'reforms today' will help deliver the 'prosperity of tomorrow'. He then went on to specifically say the money from the mining tax would deliver the reforms of tomorrow.

Well, if this government is basing its future or basing the funding of any future reforms on a mere $126 million minus $40 million and minus $50 million, the future is looking rather bleak for Australians. This seems to be a case of the Treasurer counting his chickens before they have hatched. What a terrible experience to have to go through. Since the Treasurer finally came to the realisation that his great big mining tax was a great big failure, he has spent months ducking and weaving from the truth. Under pressure, he continues to duck and weave in the answers that he gives.

It was only late last year that the Treasurer was adamant that he would gain revenue from this great big new tax. In his mid-year economic financial outlook, the Treasurer counted on $2 billion net revenue this financial year. But the mining tax has failed to deliver. The Treasurer has missed his revenue forecast by some 90 per cent. Wayne Swan's crowning achievement, the mining tax, has raised only a fraction of the revenue promised in the budget and in MYEFO. We are left wondering how long the Treasurer knew this mining tax would prove to be as hugely unsuccessful as it has been. The signs were there for all to see in June last year when a report predicted a revenue shortfall of more than $8.6 billion. But, although this impending failure was clear for all to see, Wayne Swan has been trying to blame everybody else for the failure of the mining tax. The Treasurer has tried to blame volatility of commodity prices. He has tried to blame the loopholes. I would not be surprised if he even tried to blame the member for Griffith. Since the Treasurer released his budget update, iron ore spot prices have actually increased. It simply defies logic for the Treasurer to blame the commodity prices for the mining tax's failure.

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, were the master architects of the mining tax. We can all recall, in the media reporting that occurred, the role that they played and the prominence of their place in the negotiations. Little effort was put into consulting industry. Only the three big miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata were taken into consideration in those consultations and deliberations. No effort was put into engaging with the smaller mining companies and there was no attempt to understand the ramifications that such a tax would place on communities. State governments and the territory governments were not even consulted or informed how the mining tax would impact on them. My home state of Western Australia, which is responsible for about 65 per cent of the mining tax revenue, was left high and dry in terms of what it would be facing under this great big new tax. Even the Independent MPs that the government was courting were left in the dark about the true nature of the mining tax. I notice that the Australian has an article today citing the member for Lyne, who said that he felt duped by the government about this tax.

This Treasurer has no one to blame but himself. What we have seen with the mining tax is merely a symptom of a greater problem in this government. This is a government that is addicted to spending, and addicted to waste and mismanagement. The Treasurer's attempted cash grab with the mining tax was merely an effort to cover up his inability to effectively manage Australia's economy.

This Labor government sees the mining tax as a way to fund its ongoing addiction to spending. The Treasurer is spending money even before he receives it. Over $15 billion worth of expenditure that he thought he would gain from the mining tax has already been promised as spending.

My concern for my state and my community is the actions that this Labor government will take to fill the budget black hole. This is a government that cannot be trusted. Time and time again this government has broken its promises for its own political gain. With such a massive budget deficit to fill, Western Australia is not safe from the grubby fingers of this Treasurer. It would be no surprise to hear that the Treasurer already has plans for the fifth version of the mining tax and the seventh revenue variation. In fact, the Member for New England has welcomed the opportunity to make another raft of structural changes to the mining tax. Who knows what this will mean for Western Australia?

In my community, I have a large population of fly-in fly-out workers. These workers rely on a prosperous mining industry for their employment. These workers will be the unseen casualties of this mining tax if the Treasurer insists on continuing to undermine the mining industry.

There are significant hidden costs of the mining tax that this Labor government is trying to ignore. It is not only the many families in my community who are reliant on the mining sector. Hundreds of small businesses in my electorate directly depend upon the continued success of the mining industry. Whether the Treasurer and his cronies choose to see it or not, the mining tax is making Australia less desirable to invest in. The mining tax has increased Australia's sovereign risk profile. Small and medium mining companies are now facing an uphill battle with the huge wads of red tape caused by the mining tax. The administrative burden that this new tax is putting on smaller companies is not supporting small and medium businesses and it is not encouraging new business. There is no more sure-fire way to undermine an entire industry than to create a great big new tax for it. There is no better way to deter investment in Australia, stall projects or slow our entire economy than to bring in an ambiguous, all-encompassing new tax—and that is exactly what the mining tax is.

Only this Labor government, dysfunctional as it is, could introduce a tax that not only raises a pittance but singlehandedly undermines the entire resource sector in our country. This Labor government has had an expectation that it can rely on one industry to fund a multitude of reckless spending. But the people of Australia are seeing through this careless behaviour and are calling for an end to it. The next election is a clear choice for Australians. It is a choice between the uncertainty of a Labor government that is so desperate to make a cash grab that it is undermining one of our strongest industries; and, alternatively, the certainty of a coalition government that knows how to manage the Australian economy, a coalition government that has a clear plan to get Australia back on track.

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