Grant Chapman (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I direct my question to the Minister representing the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources. Will the minister inform the Senate of the importance of the resources industry to the Australian economy? Will the minister also inform the Senate of government policies which have helped the industry to take advantage of strong commodity prices? Has the minister considered any alternative policies?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chapman for that question. It is very true that the mining and resources industry has been a great success story in recent years compared to just over five years ago, when many commentators, including, may I say, those opposite, urged a major economic shift in Australia away from mining and towards the dotcom sector. Mining was derided as the old economy and the dotcom boom on the NASDAQ was a symbol of the new economy which Australia had to embrace. It is worth observing that, while the NASDAQ today is still below the peak level it reached in March 2000, Australia’s mining sector has gone on to achieve record profitability since that time.

Of course, the Howard government have been steadfast supporters of the mining industry. It was our government that abolished export controls on resources. It was our government that reformed the native title process. It was our government that introduced Australian workplace agreements. It was our government that took taxes off exports through the GST and increased diesel rebates for the mining sector. The Labor Party opposed all of these changes in keeping with a longstanding left-wing antipathy to the mining industry.

Whether on environmental or Indigenous policies or on industrial relations grounds, the Labor Party have a long history of regarding the mining industry with suspicion and even outright hostility. As recently as the last election, Labor promised to increase fuel taxes on the mining sector. They were going to increase taxes on fuel in the mining sector, making it less competitive. Now, with their usual double standards, the Labor Party claim that the government has complacently relied on a continuation of the mining boom to maintain economic growth.

Labor issue hyperbolic estimates of alleged revenue windfalls from the commodity boom. There are several points you need to make about this. Yes, the mining industry is important, but it should be kept in perspective. It accounts for six per cent of Australia’s GDP and 1.3 per cent of the workforce. In 2004-05—these are the latest figures—the company tax paid by the mining industry accounted for less than 10 per cent of total company tax revenue and 1.6 per cent of all taxation revenue. So, even allowing for an increase since then, it is clear that the surge in mining profitability, which we welcome, does not of itself explain the rise in tax revenue, which has come about through a stronger economy overall. Secondly, far from banking on a continuation of the mining boom, the budget, if they read it closely, assumes a fall in commodity prices in coming years. Even allowing for that assumption, the budget forecasts surpluses of more than one per cent of GDP.

Thirdly, there is ample evidence that, under Labor, there would be no mining boom of the magnitude that we have observed. In addition to opposing every single one of the pro-mining policies instituted by our government in the last decade, Labor now, extraordinarily, proposes to tear up AWAs and then, extraordinarily, unilaterally cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent. It is a fact that almost one-third of all employees in the mining sector in this country are employed under AWAs. Labor’s industrial relations policy would so compromise the strength of the mining industry that the world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton, just said:

As it stands, the ALP’s proposed IR policy will not only abolish AWAs, it will also effectively get rid of the mining industry’s ability to capitalise on the current huge demand for minerals.

That is the world’s largest mining company condemning Labor’s policy for the damage it will do to the mining industry. It is the Labor Party that are showing extraordinary complacency. They seem to believe that prosperity just comes falling out of the sky or arrives on a boat from China. They do not understand that it has taken 10 years of hard work and hard policy reform—opposed every step of the way by those opposite—to deliver the outstanding outcomes we now see today.