Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you for your indulgence, Madam Acting Deputy President. What I wanted to say was with regard to the mining tax, which I consider a double taxation—on top of company tax. It is a super tax on profits—risk-free profits, I should add, on anything above six per cent. But, rather than milk up my time, the point I wanted to make is that throughout the last month, or however long we have been debating this issue—certainly this week when we moved our motion on a matter of public importance—the core of the Labor Party argument now is that this is just a tax on the big boys. You have reverted to kind by pushing the argument of politics of envy and class war. Every speaker who got up raised that issue first up. This is what it is all about now. This is the argument that you are pushing—that this is a class war on the big bosses of BHP and Rio. It is the old politics of envy that you do so well. When you are in a corner this is what you revert to. The truth of the matter is that this tax will cut a swathe through the small and medium mining operations. We moved a motion on a matter of public importance in the middle of this week, and you spoke and addressed the concerns of your state about this matter but not one speaker on the other side addressed it. There is probably no state that epitomises more the medium to small mining operations that will be affected by this tax than my state of Victoria. Just remember that Victoria was the home of the Eureka Stockade, which was a rebellion against attacks. It was not some Labor Party union rebellion against the big bosses. It was the independent workers, the small miners, if you like, rebelling against a government tax, and this is not much different.