George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 7) Bill 2014. This bill contains a number of amendments to fix technical and drafting defects, repeal redundant provisions and address some of the unintended consequences of the current tax and superannuation laws. But the part of this bill that has the biggest impact on my electorate and on the nation relates to schedule 6, as the member for O'Connor has been talking about: the exploration development incentive. The Excess Exploration Credit Tax Bill 2014 seeks to provide an incentive to encourage investment in small mineral exploration companies undertaking greenfields mineral exploration in Australia.

Consideration of this legislation and its value to my electorate and to the national economy comes down to some simple propositions: do you believe in the resource industry or do you not believe in the resource industry; do you appreciate just how many dollars the resource industry puts into this economy and how reliant we are on revenue from mining to provide the services that we enjoy; and do you understand the number of jobs that come from the resource industry, directly and indirectly? I can assure you people in my electorate know too well the importance of the resource industry. They saw firsthand what happened when Australia played to its strengths, with our abundant resources delivering jobs in regional centres—and funding cushy lifestyles for inner city socialists in the capital cities. They saw firsthand what happened when those same inner city socialists launched a class war on the country's biggest industry.

I mention this because it is that class war—a socialist fight against people working hard for a decent living—that will attack this legislation here today. It is that class war—a fight against any company or industry that has the temerity to make money while employing thousands of people—that will decry any industry incentive as 'corporate welfare'. Yet, strangely, those bleating about 'corporate welfare' are the same people who insist that we pour billions of dollars into industries that would never, ever survive on their own—all in the name of worshipping the false climate gods. Yes, there are those who do not believe in the resource sector, who do not appreciate the value and the importance of the sector to the economy. There are those who will attack the sector in any way they can because their political ideology dictates that all mining must be shut down. They exist predominantly in the Australian Greens, and the Greens are aided and abetted by the Labor Party, the party who presided over the most destructive government our country has seen and led an attack—directed by the Greens—on the No. 1 income earner for this country, the mining industry.

Rather than playing to our strengths and providing incentives for the development of this critical industry, as this legislation seeks to do, Labor and the Greens wanted to tax it to death. They refused to recognise the contribution that resources made to the coffers of this nation but thought $11 billion could easily be bled from what they called 'superprofits'. While their mining tax was a total disaster for the budget, given that it raised a tiny fraction of the cost of the schemes that the Labor Party linked to it and spent in advance, it did have a big impact on the industry in terms of sovereign risk. Large mining companies, with operations all over the world, looked at the then Labor government and what they were doing and their attitude towards mining—namely, to stop it from making a profit—and they reassessed their priorities in the global environment. What the Labor Party did was give those miners a very good reason to operate in another country, to employ citizens of another country and to create tax revenue for a government in another country. That made their Green mates happy because that would mean fewer businesses making that dirty thing called money and more people on the dole queue and under government control. The Labor era pushed the miners away. But that era is over.

We now have before us legislation that does the opposite. It is all about attracting miners to this country and providing an incentive to create wealth for all Australians. The incentive provided under this legislation is capped at $100 million over the next three years, which will manage the cost to the budget and protect it from fluctuations in expenditure for greenfields mining exploration. The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said the Abbott government's exploration incentive scheme would:

… encourage much needed investment in greenfields exploration which is at historic lows. It will also create jobs for exploration support services such as drilling contractors and geoscientists.

…   …   …

"Greenfields exploration is essential to make new discoveries that will become the mines of tomorrow to generate jobs and Government revenue streams.

Feedback from the industry also reports that junior explorers in Australia struggle to raise capital for exploration. As a result, exploration for new mineral discoveries has reached a 10-year low. Is it any wonder? We had Labor and the Greens doing everything that they could to shut them down for seven years. The previous Labor-Greens government demonstrated by their actions that they did not believe in the resources industry. They did not appreciate the value and understand the importance of the industry, unless, of course, it could help them get elected. Labor could put up the pretence of believing in the industry for an election campaign. In 2007, I have got to note, they committed to a scheme similar to this legislation. But, once elected, they became the Greens' whipping boy and nothing was done. They were happy to get paddled, '50 shades of green' style, but nothing was done. In 2010, the Labor Party once again committed to a scheme similar to the legislation that we debate today. But, once elected, again they became the Greens' whipping boy—'50 shades of green'—and nothing was done. It is no wonder at all that exploration for new mineral discoveries is at a 10-year low.

Now they are in opposition, Labor have demonstrated their anticoal stance. The ABC reported—and it is online—that the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, 'doesn't see much of a future for the coal industry'. The shadow environment minister, Mark Butler, told the ABC that he wanted the coal industry phased out. These are the statements of a party that does not believe in resources. In contrast, we have the Prime Minister, on a visit to the mining region of Central Queensland in October last year, saying this:

This is a sign of hope and confidence in the future of the coal industry. It's a great industry and we've had a great partnership with Japan in the coal industry. Coal is essential for the prosperity of Australia. Coal is essential for the prosperity of the world. Energy is what sustains prosperity and coal is the world's principal energy source and it will be for many decades to come.

But the Prime Minister, Australia, and the people who want jobs and prosperity have an uphill battle, because, even today, we have a Labor government in Queensland—returned there with the assistance of the Greens and their PR arm, GetUp!—that is determined to stop the resource industry in its tracks. The Galilee Basin, in Queensland, has the potential to unleash enormous wealth for Australians and to bring tens of thousands of jobs to Queensland. But Queensland Labor promised to take away the incentive for building the vital infrastructure linking key mines, such as the Carmichael mine, with the port at Abbot Point in my electorate of Dawson. What is more, they have promised to delay the necessary port expansion by not allowing dredge spoil to be disposed of on a suitable site located on land.

Labor and the Greens did not want disposal of this dredge spoil at sea, so we went all in to find a land based solution—yet they still attack it. They say it will destroy the so-called internationally significant Caley Valley wetlands or, as the locals know it, the Kaili Valley wetlands. These are wetlands that were man-made. The locals will tell you that gun clubs back in the 1950s actually diverted water courses and turned a dry area into a wetland for the primary purpose of duck hunting. That is how that wetland came into creation. But Labor and the Greens use it as an excuse. In stopping or, at least, delaying the Abbot Point and Carmichael mine rail infrastructure, Labor and the Greens are putting at risk thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in government revenue and are denying millions of desperate, poor people across the world access to what they need —and that is energy.

Millions of people in India remain without electricity, and the cheapest and easiest means of bringing these people out of energy poverty is coal. Australia produces some of the best and cleanest coal in the world. If we had any compassion for the world's poorest people, we would be encouraging exploration and the development of new mines to help supply the cheapest form of electricity available to those people.

The University of Queensland's Energy Poverty Research Group says:

Modern, clean and efficient energy services are crucial for human well-being and facilitating social and economic development. Energy poverty denies billions of people in the developing world access to modern energy services.

A report produced by a wide group of international agencies led by the World Bank recently reported that about 1.2 billion people—nearly as many as the entire population of India—still live without access to electricity, while 2.8 billion people rely on wood, crop waste, dung, and other biomass to cook and heat their homes. The World Bank said that, unless the world addresses the widespread problem of energy poverty, other efforts at economic development are likely to fall short.

If we fail to encourage the resources sector through legislation such as this, we will fail to address the urgent need of billions of people living in energy poverty. If we allow the Queensland Labor government and the extreme Greens to shut down our own economic prosperity through our resources sector, we will confine millions of people to poverty.

India and China are moving very quickly to deliver electricity to more people, but they cannot keep up with demand. India has extended the reach of its grid to an average of 24 million more people each year—and they have not done it with solar panels—and yet 306 million people in India remain without electricity. In China, 612 million people—nearly twice the population of the United States—do not have clean fuel for cooking and heating. If they do not have clean fuel for cooking and heating, they are forced to resort to other means. According to an article by National Geographic in 2013, about 3½ million people, mainly women and children, die each year from respiratory illness due to harmful indoor air pollution from wood and biomass cooking stoves. Last night I watched a video about this energy poverty. It featured a Nepalese family and a baby that was dying. You could see it dying in this video from respiratory disease caused directly by this stuff. That is what the Greens do. That is the result of the Greens campaign against coal.

The solution to this enormous problem is at hand. We have the resources here in this country to produce reliable, affordable energy—and India, for instance, wants to buy it from us. Even though worldwide wind power has grown at an average rate of 25 per cent and solar energy at a rate of 11.4 per cent since 1990, those two forms of renewable energy—along with geothermal, waste and marine energy—contribute barely one per cent to global energy consumption.

If the Greens and Labor believe in equality, in helping the world's poor and in ending suffering then they must believe our resources sector—with the cleanest and most environmentally friendly coal in the world—can alleviate energy poverty throughout the third world . We can bring these people up to the standards that we enjoy today. The Greens must believe in providing encouragement and incentives to those who can help bring millions of people out of poverty and let those poor people of the world enjoy a tiny fraction of the benefits enjoyed by those who sit in their leafy inner city suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney, those latte-sipping socialists who condemn proposals like this and think that mining is dirty. I have to tell you that it is not. Mining is actually humanitarian. Mining supports jobs in regional Australia, in electorates like mine.

I support this bill. I strongly support the mining exploration tax credit. It is a very welcome scheme that will go some way to rebooting the mining sector in this country. I look forward to junior miners taking advantage of this throughout the Bowen Basin and perhaps even the Galilee Basin and getting jobs back up and running throughout Central Queensland. I am glad to hear that this has the support of those opposite, but they really need to start talking up resources. They need to start talking about the positives of resources rather than constantly trying to demonise them. Coal provides jobs. Coal provides power. Coal can alleviate energy poverty throughout the Third World. I support the bill.

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