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Thursday, 15 March 2012
Page: 1876

Mining

Senator SHERRY (Tasmania) (14:10): Mr President, my question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Evans. Can the minister advise the Senate how the government is committed to ensuring that the benefits of the mining boom can be shared with other businesses throughout Australia as a result of tax reform?

Senator CHRIS EVANS (Western Australia—Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:10): I thank Senator Sherry for his question and his ongoing interest in the strong economic position of the country.

Australia's economy is continuing to grow despite the difficult global conditions, and we are keeping our economy strong. That means more people are staying in work. We know what is happening overseas and we have the situation in Australia where the economy remains strong and people remain in jobs. But we also know that to grow our economy we need to continue to support Australian businesses. That is why we are committed to company tax reform so that businesses can be even more confident to continue to invest in Australia and can continue to be confident in employing Australians.

We are committed to delivering a one per cent tax cut as part of business and company tax reform. We will fund that one per cent cut from the revenue from the superprofits which flow from this once-in-a-generation minerals boom. Australians understand that mining companies are making record profits from mining our resources. They want to make sure, as this government does, that the benefits of that flow through our community. This government will be using the profits from those resources to benefit business in Australia—to provide them with some taxation reform that will allow them to grow their businesses and allow them to employ Australians.

We are determined to provide business tax reform. We are determined to see lower rates of business and company tax. We are determined to make sure those companies doing it tough also benefit from the mining boom. We would encourage the Liberal Party to come to their senses and recognise the importance of business tax reform, recognise the views of business around Australia that support this reform, examine the mess they have got themselves into, and come on board and support Australian business.

Senator SHERRY (Tasmania) (14:13): Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister further advise the Senate how the government is putting in place measures to ensure the long-term fiscal and economic strength of Australia?

Senator CHRIS EVANS (Western Australia—Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:13): We are absolutely committed, as a government, to returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13. To achieve that surplus the government is undergoing one of the fastest fiscal consolidations in history. This means you have to make tough decisions, and that includes tough decisions like reforming how we subsidise private health insurance. That was a tough decision that said, 'We want a sustainable private health insurance system.' We have made the tough decision that says, 'We can't subsidise the private health insurance of everyone. We can't ask ordinary working families to subsidise the private health insurance costs of the very wealthy.' (Time expired)

Senator SHERRY (Tasmania) (14:13): Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Senate whether he is aware of any alternative policies which put at risk the long-term economic and fiscal position of Australia?

Senator CHRIS EVANS (Western Australia—Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:14): As I understand the coalition's position now, it is to give back money from the mining tax to those making superprofits, some of the richest billionaires in the country. Their position is to subsidise the private health insurance of the very wealthy in Australia. Their policy is to provide a $75,000 benefit to families who are earning more than $150,000 per year. And they are going to fund all of this largess to the wealthy by cutting services to ordinary Australians. They have got themselves in the position where they are continually giving money back to the wealthy, and they are going to have to find the $70 billion required to make those decisions by cutting the health, education and superannuation that ordinary Australian families rely on. That is what they have got themselves into. We know before the next election they are going to have to rethink this, but Australians will not accept this sort of stupid economics. (Time expired)