Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just noticed the member for Hunter yawning twice there, and it is no wonder! And my good colleague, the member for Macarthur, yawned. This debate has been a yawn from Labor. Where are they? They know that the mining tax is gone—and that it was a good day for South Australia yesterday, and a good day for Australia. And they would have seen the headline in The West Australianlet me read it out to them, just in case they did not see it—'Jobs hope as mining tax gets the axe'. It is all about jobs. We are creating more jobs, and they know it. And the mining tax was destroying jobs.

Let us look at South Australia as a case study. Our mining operations and our economy have been held back by this devious tax. The South Australian Premier said, 'the minerals resource rent tax has very little application here in South Australia'. How wrong he is. SACOME, the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy, said that the MRRT was an unfair and inefficient tax, and that it discriminated against South Australia in particular, due to the vast amounts of magnetite iron ore in South Australia. So did we see the Premier of South Australia jumping on a plane to meet with the Labor Prime Minister of the day? No. Where was he? Did we see him yesterday, thanking the government for removing the mining tax and helping the South Australian economy? No. Where was he? Nowhere to be seen. Significant mining activity in South Australia is going to come from magnetite iron ore in the Eyre Peninsula and other areas of our state, and this will be great news for our economy. In contrast to the Premier's short-sighted statement, the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy's Jonathon Forbes said:

The thing is, the next big wave of mines in South Australian is going to be in iron ore. The market expectation is that there will be five to six new mines in the next five to seven years. Eventually, those mines would have been affected by the mining tax.

If only the Premier would stop complaining about the great things that this government is doing for the nation, and for the state of South Australia, including an increase in education funding of $275 million over the next four years, and an increase in health funding of over $333 million over the next four years.

What are we doing? We have created a vision: jobs for South Australia. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, this is the most stupid tax ever devised. This is a tax that cost jobs and costs investment. Let us just talk about investment. Australian government representatives overseas identified taxes like the mining tax and the carbon tax as creating sovereign risk for our country—less investment from overseas in Australia; fewer jobs, and less economic activity. Those opposite do not want to see jobs and economic activity; they just talk down Australia and the economy going forward.

Let us look at the other ramifications of this mining tax, from a compliance perspective. Fewer than 20 companies have contributed to the mining tax, but over 125 have actually been required to submit mining tax statement instalment notices while making no net payments—more red tape, more compliance. That is why this government is on the right track, by removing the regulatory burden, and by removing compliance with red tape for companies. We are helping businesses; they are against businesses.

Let me finish today with what the coalition has done in recent times. We have scrapped the mining tax. We have scrapped the carbon tax. We have got on with delivering infrastructure for the 21st century—for example, South Road in South Australia, $1 billion and many jobs; and great progress in upgrading the north-south corridor which will help some mining companies—like Boart Longyear at Adelaide Airport, and Normet in Torrensville in my electorate—get their drilling equipment to the markets of north and south Australia, with more jobs, more economic activity, and a better result for all.

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