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

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline how Western Australian mining companies will have their compliance costs reduced after the abolition of the mining tax, and will the Treasurer outline how this affects the 3,100 workers in the mining industry in the electorate of Hasluck?

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

It is a very good question from the member for Hasluck because the mining tax is a burden on the people of Western Australia, as it is on all Australians. The mining tax is a budget disaster.

Imagine introducing a tax that hardly raises any money, but then you go and spend all this money against a fictional revenue stream. That is exactly what the Labor Party did. It was originally to raise nearly $50 billion so they went on a spending spree against money that they never collected. In total, the tax raised $400 million—just $400 million. Fewer than 20 taxpayers have paid that $400 million. Around 145 other miners have been required to submit all the paperwork associated with the tax.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are up in the gallery watching you.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to 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!