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

I will answer the question in the same way that I have answered the questions from Senator Cormann. First, I do not discuss and the government does not discuss the individual tax affairs of companies. Second, the government has made assumptions about commodity prices and other parameters and has taken account of royalty decisions as I previously described, and those considerations have led to the write-down in MRRT revenue which I have previously outlined here, whereby we anticipate collecting some $9 billion over the forward estimates—a significant write-down of $4.3 billion over the forward estimates.

As senators would know, with each budget update, the government does update its figures and takes into account movements in key economic parameters, including things such as commodity prices, and of course makes assumptions about how taxpayers will deal with particular taxes. This is an inherent part, for example, of forecasting capital gains tax, income tax and so forth. The MRRT is no different. Those factors have been taken into account. I would again refer the opposition to the figures in the MYEFO whereby there has been an adjustment to the MRRT revenue take of some $4.3 billion over the forward estimates.