Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I heard that interjection from the member over there. I just remind the House that the Labor Party is not very good with numbers, we know that. They certainly are not very good with budgets and they are most definitely not very good with other people's money. When I thought about why would you introduce a tax that does not raise any money I went to my old china plate over there, the member for Lilley. He summed it up in this year's budget. The member for Lilley said about the mining tax: 'We brought a super profits tax in precisely at the time the super profits disappeared.' And he is right. He is Mensa so he is right.

The problem is that Labor is defending all this expenditure against this tax. So let us get it right: the tax does not raise any money; the tax has over $16 billion of expenditure against it; the tax leaves the budget $13½ billion worse off; the tax leaves the debt to increase by $13½ billion; the Labor Party says that they actually want to keep the tax; and the tax is a burden on 145 people who have to pay between $2 million and $20 million a year to comply with a tax that hardly raises any money. You guys are geniuses. Collectively, you are outstanding work. I say to the Labor Party, 'respect the mandate of the Australian people; respect the mandate of the government'. As the Australian people did, you should vote to get rid of the mining tax. It is an insidious and flawed tax that only the Labor Party could come up with. Well done!

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