Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for O'Connor noted, both Deputy Speaker Porter and he took a vital interest in the development of the resources industry in their previous times. The member for O'Connor has a very strong interest in the resources sector not only because he is the member for O'Connor. Some people would argue that O'Connor is at the heart of the history of the Australian resources industry. The centre for that is in Kalgoorlie, which I have had the opportunity to visit. The Mining Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie is certainly an apt reminder of the huge debt we owe to the miners and resource investors of Australia going right back to the 1800s.

I also congratulate the member for O'Connor for his transition to politics. He has a background a little similar to mine. We were both farmers once. I guess he is still more active than I am—in fact, I am sure he is; these are no longer the hands of a farmer. I am sure the member for O'Connor still delights in getting out in the paddock and driving the harvester or perhaps crutching a few sheep if he is having a really good day. I congratulate him on his transition to politics and for his advocacy not only for the industries in his electorate but for all members of the seat of O'Connor.

He was quite right when he talked about the importance of the resource sector. The resource sector contributes around 10 per cent of our GDP, employs over one-quarter of a million Australians and indirectly provides income to another 800,000, so over one million people rely on the resource sector for their income and their living. As I said earlier, the resource sector is heaving a huge sigh of relief that the coalition have come back into government and that we have relieved them from the burden of the last six years when they were used as a punching bag by people like the member for Lilley, who constantly attacked successful Australian resource figures. Then, when he had finished degrading their characters quite unfairly, he went on to empty their pockets with things like the ill-fated mining resource rent tax, which had about five iterations. In the end, as we know, it was a great tax introduced by the Treasurer that actually raised no money at all. It chased away billions of dollars worth of investment but did nothing.

The member for O'Connor asked me what we are going to do to support the resources sector. Apart from putting the 'open for business' sign up, apart from reducing red tape and green tape and introducing the one-stop shop, we are going to remove the carbon tax, which will give them a huge boost, and we are also going to remove the mining tax. It will be interesting to watch those people opposite vote against those measures when they know that the people of Australia want them removed and they know that the people of Australia depend on the Australian resource industry and industry in general being competitive.

The member for O'Connor also asked me what policy initiatives we are going to take, which gives me the opportunity to answer the latter part of the member for Dawson's question. We are going to introduce a $100 million Exploration Development Incentive, previously known as flow-through shares. I think it was the member for Wakefield who said it was a subsidy. That just highlights how little those who sit opposite know about the resource industry. The exploration incentive allows individual entities, mum-and-dad Australians, to invest in the R&D, the research and development, of the resource industry in Australia. What better way is there to do it and say to them: 'If you put your money at risk then, just as we do in the research and development area where we provide a tax incentive for people to do that, we will provide you with a tax incentive to invest in one of Australia's great sectors, the resource sector.' So we are putting in place an Exploration Development Incentive and I look forward to returning to Kalgoorlie with the member for O'Connor where I campaigned with him and we promised that if we got into government we would introduce this scheme. Unlike those who sit opposite, we will do that. We will go back to the drilling sheds, where we stood with people who had put their whole livelihoods at risk to go out and explore for minerals, and we will say, 'We promised and we delivered,' unlike those who sit opposite.

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