Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I think this is actually the same set of questions I was asked yesterday. As I said in answer to a question from Senator Cormann then, first, the government has written down MRRT revenue significantly as a result of the larger than expected drop in commodity prices that we have seen in the last few months. The write-down is in the order of $4.3 billion over the forward estimates. As the senator would know, there are obviously swings and roundabouts in MRRT revenue, a profit based tax, so by design it will collect more when profits are high and less when profits are low.

I think on the last occasion I did refer the senator, although I did not finish the answer, to the PRRT, which, as he would probably know, has been around for 25 years. It is also a volatile but important source of revenue. For example, in 1998-99 that resource rent tax collected half the amount that was forecast but then a couple of years later raised nearly twice the amount forecast, the point being that these profit based taxes are obviously more volatile. But I do not think anybody on that side of the chamber is suggesting that we should be abolishing the PRRT.

The answer to the question, therefore, is that the government has taken a range of factors into account, particularly the significant drop in commodity prices since the budget, and the government has revised down, given all of the circumstances, the MRRT revenue by the amount that is set out in the mid-year review.