Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My colleague Senator Cormann reminds me that it is possible that again concessions for superannuation will be further reduced. Superannuation, it seems, is an area that governments cannot keep away from, and it seems to be one of almost constant policy change. There is speculation that the government may look more seriously at some of the proposals of Senator Cameron, who has proposed in this place that the minerals resource rent tax be extended to other mineral commodities. He has proposed a financial services tax, a Tobin tax—a tax on financial transactions. This is something which has been tried in some jurisdictions overseas. It was tried in Sweden in the 1980s and very quickly abandoned because it led to a flight of financial services activity to other, lower tax jurisdictions. Indeed, it was probably one of the reasons why the City of London got the fillip it got in the eighties. So the Tobin tax could potentially come back on the radar of the government. Senator Cameron had proposed that these taxes be used to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, for Gonski and for other expenditure commitments of this government. That is my fear, therefore, for the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook: that there will be a raft of revenue increases and low-quality spending cuts as the government scrambles to meet its commitment for a wafer-thin budget surplus of $1.5 billion in 2012-13. The information we have about the falling commodity prices suggests that there could be at least a $10 billion hole in revenue in this financial year, and possibly that will become bigger. So there is much pressure on the government to take these swingeing revenue increases. (Time expired)