Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Another day and another leadership audition from the member for McMahon –with all of that confected outrage. What we have seen during the last 13 or 14 minutes is the member for McMahon still framing the national debate using the politics of envy and division. It shows you how far the once proud Labor Party has fallen, because Hawke and Keating never would have done that. Every day, the member for McMahon and his colleagues walk in here and try to frame the national debate in the way that Australians instinctively know is not right. He stands there and talks about low-income earners and the cost pressures on low-income earners. If he is so concerned about low-income earners, why does he not pass the repeal legislation for the carbon tax? Why does he not provide that cost-of-living relief of $550 for every Australian family? Instead, they come in here time after time and they brigade with the Greens in the Senate to stop that cost-of-living relief for Australian families.

I am pleased to make a contribution to the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2014. Let me commence by saying that, just like our repeal legislation for the carbon tax, the government will act in a way that is consistent with our clear election mandate to roll back Labor's ill-considered taxes. We are determined to wind back the bad policies of the former government—particularly the MRRT, which imposed significant financial and economic pain on the mining industry for very little gain. At a time when the industry was—and it remains so—confronted with challenges to its ability to invest and grow, the former government imposed additional pressures through the minerals resource rent tax.

The MRRT repeats the mistakes of the carbon tax. Recall that the carbon tax took no account of what happened at the Copenhagen summit and became a millstone around the neck of our international competitiveness. Despite the pain that it caused, and continues to cause—some $15 billion of economic damage in the last two years—the carbon tax did not actually have the policy effect of reducing emissions. Indeed, emissions went up in Australia, and the way we achieved that abatement effect was by putting billions of dollars of taxpayers' money into dodgy carbon markets overseas. How do we get to a point where this country puts forward and approves a bill that imposes $15 billion of damage that does not actually have the intended policy effect? As a former senior public servant I cannot understand that, much less Australian families.

Whether it is the carbon tax or the mining resource rent tax, it has the effect of undermining jobs and endeavour in our country. Similarly, the MRRT imposed a big lead weight on the mining industry. It increased its compliance costs, yet raised nowhere near the forecast revenue. Like some snake oil salesman at a country fair, the MRRT doubled up on the economic damage it caused when the former government linked a number of spending measures to the failed MRRT. The schoolkids bonus was an example of that—it was clearly dependent on revenue from the mining tax. We see that link in comments from Senator Wong, the then Minister for Finance in June of 2012, which directly linked the schoolkids bonus to the proceeds of the mining tax.

What happened is that Labor raised expectations in our community that the federal government would fund certain programs from mining tax revenue. The problem was that the MRRT did not deliver anywhere near the forecast revenue. Labor became even more reliant—if that is possible—on borrowings to pay for these commitments. When the longer history of Australia is written, the carbon tax and mining tax will be remembered as signature policy failures of the Labor party in government. In the case of the MRRT, it is forecast to raise only around 10 per cent of the originally forecast revenue. It is a bit like a gambler predicting what their winnings at the casino will be and then undertaking to spend all those winnings and expressing surprise when the consequences of their bad judgement are realised.

In my home state of Tasmania, resetting our economic course for a brighter future includes reinvigorating valuable industries like forestry and mining. Increasing the tax and compliance costs for industries like mining has the potential to damage our state doubly. It can impede new investment and impact on the growth of local jobs—highly undesirable outcomes for Tasmania which, sadly, has the highest unemployment rate in the country for both youth and adults and the lowest participation rate. Goodness knows the very deliberate and deceptive campaign by the Greens party to impede mining and forestry projects in Tasmania is bad enough already without these sorts of additional pressures.

I refer in particular to Greens efforts to lock up the so-called Tarkine in Tasmania. 'Tarkine' is a name given to the area by Dr Bob Brown, the former Greens leader, in the early 1990s which sought to elevate it to some mythical and romanticised status. In reality, this area is called the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area. It is bounded by the Arthur River in the north and the Pieman River in the south. Yet Dr Brown's invention has mystical growing boundaries, matched only by Greens party demands to lock up even more of Tasmania as a national park. The Arthur-Pieman area is indeed a beautiful area with important reserves that deliver a sensible balance between recreational, economic and conservation imperatives.

Despite mine proposals and existing mines only covering one per cent of Dr Brown's mystical creation, the Greens continue to use every legal advice to impede their approval. That includes threats to sue the member for Braddon and Senator Madigan. The member for Braddon was in the chamber yesterday talking about some of the extraordinary pressure that is being applied in trying to stop him doing his job as a representative of his people as someone who is a champion of mining and forestry and seeks to restore the economic fortunes of what was once a proud state. Sadly after 16 years of state Labor and six years of federal Labor, and Labor-Greens government, Tasmania is no longer the proud state it once was. The member for Braddon, the member for Lyons and I will do everything in our power between now and the next election—and beyond, if we get the opportunity—to make sure that proud status is restored and the economic revitalisation of Tasmania is brought forward.

I will now go back to the Arthur-Pieman area, the so-called mystical Tarkine that Dr Brown talks about. Despite this area being dotted with historical mine sites and railway infrastructure, the Greens party, quite mendaciously, presents the whole area as pristine untouched wilderness. There is no doubt that the Greens and their Labor partners celebrate the MRRT, which only serves to add pressure on the mining industry. In this sense, Labor's mining tax supports Green party efforts around the country to impede sensible development.

Australians are a smart resourceful people who have a healthy suspicion of authority. They understand that taxes are necessary to provide for our community's needs. But their confidence has been shaken in recent years by tax policies that have overpromised but underdelivered—and the minerals resource rent tax is one of the key reasons for that shaken confidence. Australians understand instinctively that, when a tax cost more than it collects, something is seriously wrong. They understand that, when a government hangs billions of dollars of expenditure on a tax that does not raise the required revenue, something is seriously wrong. They know that, when that tax also has the effect of damaging the economy and threatening jobs, there is something seriously wrong with that tax.

Deputy Speaker, I ask you to recall Labor's original announcement of the grandly named 'resource super profits tax'. It is a matter of historical record that everything under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government had a grand moniker—the 'super tax', the 'education revolution'—and then 'crusade'—and the 'greatest moral challenge of our time'. Well, the super profits tax was not really all that super; it was meant to raise $49.5 billion over five years, which was then revised down to $26.5 billion. In July 2010 it became the minerals resource rent tax, and it kept sliding in every budget to raise only about $340 million net—a long way from $49.5 billion. But, to compound the error, Labor contributed $16.5 billion against revenue that had not been realised.

I see that the member for Rankin is here. He was working in the office of the former member for Lilley.

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