Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you still have not answered my question. Again, you are saying that because we did it for the guns buyback then it is okay to do it here. Let me take you through this. This levy is to rebuild Queensland and other states because of the floods. If you accept that the levy is a reasonable thing to do, rather than expecting the state to do it as every other state is required to do, the Australian public as a whole should contribute to rebuilding Queensland. Why, Minister, is it that individuals have to pay for this recovery yet major multinationals do not have to? Coalmining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP do not have to contribute one cent towards the rebuilding of Queensland. Why is that? That is what I am genuinely wanting to understand.