Senator IAN MACDONALD (8:33 PM) —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.

Senator Sherry interjecting—

Senator IAN MACDONALD —I know Bob Brown really is the Prime Minister but I would have thought, Minister, that you were still maintaining the pretence that you ran the government and I thought this was your legislation. Your legislation imposes this obligation on individuals—the butcher, the baker, my motor mechanic. What was the policy rationale that said: ‘Okay, Coles, Woolworths, Rio Tinto and BHP do not have to contribute to the recovery of Queensland’? That is the real issue. This is why I have been opposed to the levy and this is why many on my side are opposed to it. That is what I am asking you. Please do not say: ‘Well, the Howard government put in a levy so we’re having a levy and it’s only on individuals because that’s what the Howard government did.’ That was perhaps so with shipping containers and Ansett as well, but I am not asking about that. I am asking: why in the rebuilding of Queensland are individuals having to fork out but Coles and Woolworths are not? My baker and my butcher have to pay but Coles and Woolworths, who compete with them, do not have to pay. Rio and BHP get away scot-free but the excavating contractor down the end of my street has to pay. Can you explain for me why individuals should rebuild Queensland and not the big income earners in our country?