Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House of the importance of various industries to the Australian economy?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Kingston his question, and I congratulate him on the good work that he is doing on behalf of his constituents. The economic growth which we have had in Australia in our longest continuous expansion has been broad based. That is one of the reasons why Australia was able to come through the Asian financial crisis, the tech wreck of 2001, the US recession of 2001, SARS, the threat of terrorism and the challenges that we have had over the last decade.

The mining industry is an important industry to Australia. It contributes about 5.9 per cent to the Australian economy and about 1.3 per cent of employment. In the last year, as I said earlier, there have been about 300,000 new jobs created in Australia and of those about 13,000 have been in the mining industry. That is something to be valued and it is a great outcome. In the time that 13,000 jobs have been put on in the mining industry, wholesale trade has put on 33,000 jobs, cafes and restaurants have put on 50,000 jobs, finance and insurance have put on 34,000 jobs, and health and community services have put on 16,000 jobs. You can see there has been a broad contribution to the Australian economy. That of course is the best economy—a balanced economy.

I have seen repeated claims over the last day or two that all of Australia’s growth and employment and its budget position are somehow just the result of the mining industry. I said that the mining industry is an important industry to Australia—and it is—but it is not the only industry that is creating jobs or creating wealth in this country. There has been a repeated claim from the Leader of the Opposition that the mining boom has contributed $283 billion into the budget over a seven-year period. That is the claim he has been making over and over again. It is a precise claim—not ‘words to that effect’, incidentally—of $283 billion.

Company tax in Australia is a little over $60 billion. The mining industry contributes eight to 10 per cent of company tax receipts—that is, about $6 billion a year. The total amount of mining tax revenue is not as a result of the increase. Some of that $5 billion or $6 billion would be part of that increase. The Treasury estimate is that the increase in commodity prices over the last four years may well have contributed $11 billion and, over the forward estimates, may well contribute another $11 billion. That will be $22 billion over eight years, as against the claim that the Leader of the Opposition repeatedly makes of $283 billion. He is only out by a factor of 10, as it turns out! No doubt he will apologise and correct the record tonight. There is nothing like $280 billion. The Treasury estimate over eight years—four gone and four to come—is more like $22 billion.

Any person who is familiar with the Australian economy would know immediately that that claim of $283 billion could not be true. You would know it immediately by looking at the Commonwealth revenue statement. If you did not know it, your advisers ought to stop you making that particular claim immediately. We are beginning to learn something about the Leader of the Opposition. He has not done his homework. He does not understand the Australian economy. He is the man who has a focus-group-tested cliche available for every occasion. Running a $1 trillion economy takes skill and the ability to do hard work to get on top of the figures. It is not for Queensland public servants to walk in and think they can do it just as they used to get away with it in the state of Queensland. It cannot be done by bullying newspapers, either, when they start writing about it. It takes skill and it takes management because people’s lives depend on it, their houses depend on it, and the coalition is committed to it.