Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 and I do so for the following reasons. Repealing this bill shows, once again, that the Abbott government puts ideology first on its agenda, ahead of the interests of companies; small business; regional infrastructure and regional development; low-income Australians; families doing it tough; Australians who value savings; Australians with retirement incomes; and the 3.5 million low-income Australians who were promised a boost to their superannuation.

All Australians should, as a matter of right, share in the benefits of the mining boom. After all, multinational companies, digging up our precious and non-renewable materials, are delivering their profits back to shareholders. Both the Barnett Liberal government in Western Australia and the Abbott Liberal government in Canberra have no issue with the sharing of profits with shareholders. However, both governments have a very big problem with Australians, particularly Western Australians, sharing in the wealth created by digging up precious, non-renewable minerals.

The Abbott government wants to take away tax cuts from 2.7 million small businesses. However, Labor's assets write-off for small businesses was welcomed by the often struggling and forgotten part of our economy—the mums and dads and the small companies, many in Western Australia. The Abbott government will take away any opportunity these companies have of expanding and employing more staff. The Abbott government likes to say it wants to create wealth and jobs, but its actions show the Australian people that it is a government that just does not care.

The Prime Minister has made much recently of his commitment to women. Indeed, he is the minister for women. That is something I struggle with—a male as the minister for women. When asked the question by a year 9 Newtown High School student, even the Prime Minister, frankly, struggled to answer. The PM said, 'People are male or female.'

He then went on to say that he believed all that mattered was that people were represented by decent human beings. Then, on International Women's Day, the PM declared himself a male feminist. Nobody is fooled by that. The women of Australia do not believe that and, if the Prime Minister counts himself as a decent human being, he has failed to convince the women of Australia of that. Why do we not believe that? Because the PM has done nothing to demonstrate his commitment to women. In fact, he has done everything to show that he has no interest in the wellbeing of women, as this is a PM who is taking away, ripping out, the rights of women in relation to expanded superannuation concessions. He is ripping money away from the lowest paid workers—3.5 million workers. And of course the Prime Minister knows that these are mostly women workers. I can tell the Prime Minister that losing this entitlement is an issue for aged-care workers, early childhood educators, hospital workers, hospitality workers and retail workers in Western Australia. These low-paid, predominantly women workers, currently retire with very little superannuation and will continue to rely on the aged-care pension for support, at a great cost to government.

To top it all off, this bill seeks to abolish the income support bonus, a tax-free payment for the over-50s on the Newstart allowance to help meet unforeseen costs, such as medical expenses. At a time when this government is secretly considering a tax on GP visits and bulk-billing, it is taking money away, again, from people who need it the most. It is a modest payment: just $210 extra per year for singles and $350 extra per year for couples. The abolition of this payment is opposed by National Seniors Australia. By ripping away this modest assistance, the Abbott government has revealed its uncaring approach and indifference towards those it should be providing support to—a government that pays heed to shareholders but cares little about Australians doing it tough.

As a Western Australian senator, I want to focus on what is happening in my state. This is particularly important as on 5 April, Western Australian voters have the unique opportunity of voting in a half-Senate election. They have an opportunity to send a strong message to the Abbott government that Western Australians will not be taken for granted—that Australians have a right to share in the wealth of our country, that that wealth does not belong to shareholders but deserves to be shared with all Australians. It seems that is a concept the Abbott government does not share. Its view is that only big business should share in the wealth of the country, and that this wealth will somehow magically trickle down to the rest of the country, particularly to the low-paid, through employment and increased pay—a failed economic theory if there ever was one. Along with this, the Abbott government is attempting to further disadvantage low-paid workers in Western Australia by an attack on penalty rates to make these workers earn even less, robbing them of superannuation and reducing their take-home pay. Western Australians will not be duped by this. They know that voting Labor on 5 April is the sensible and safe thing to do.

What is happening in the minerals resource sector in WA? If you listen to the Abbott government, it is all doom and gloom. Earlier this month, the Fraser Institute survey of mining companies found that WA's resources sector had been identified as the top-rated jurisdiction for investment attractiveness in the world, with no signs of slowing down—something that the WA senators for the Abbott government seem not to have noticed; it has passed them by. But this survey has found that Western Australia is the No. 1 investment opportunity for many companies seeking to do mining. Furthermore, during the 2012-13 period Western Australia's mineral and petroleum sectors set a new record of value of $113.8 billion. This is a new record value and yet, if you listen to the Abbott government and particularly to the Liberal senators from Western Australia, you would think that the mining industry was in deficit. You would think that no money was being made in mining in Western Australia, because the Abbott government goes on and on about the carbon tax and the MRRT—which is having no impact on investment in Western Australia. But again we see a government totally committed to just making it up, to whatever suits on the day. They do not look at facts; they just rely on fiction. Whatever it takes is what will be motivating them.

That record value was an increase of over 15 per cent on the previous period, showing significant growth both in the industry as a whole and in petroleum mining itself. Not only that, this report goes on to say that WA was rated No. 1 on a range of key indicators—something else that seems to have passed the Western Australian Liberal senators by. So what were some of those indicators? Guess what: No. 1 one for investment attractiveness. That is not what the Abbott government would have the Australian public believe, and it is not what the Abbott government would have Western Australian voters believe. Western Australia was also No. 1 on certainty concerning existing regulations—again, nothing you would ever hear from the Abbott government. The MRRT did not rate a mention—and again, the Abbott government is completely out of touch on this.

I always thought that Liberals stuck together, but apparently not. Just two weeks ago, on around 11 March, the WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Mr Bill Marmion, proudly announced that Western Australia ranked as the world's No. 1 investment destination. He shouted that in a media release, saying that these positive results: 'reinforce that WA has what it takes to be globally competitive, but we know our work is far from done and it is important not to be complacent.' Again, no mention by Mr Marmion of the imposition of a good neighbour policy. And again the Abbott government is completely out of touch—particularly Western Australian Liberal senators, who I assume meet with Mr Marmion and yet seem to have missed the major statement that Mr Marmion made just two weeks ago about Western Australia being the top investment destination. Mr Marmion went on to say: 'WA has a dynamic, world class resources industry which underpins the State and national economies'—this is coming from their own side, from a Liberal minister in a state government. They seem to have missed that. These statements by Mr Marmion are completely different to what we hear from the likes of Senator Cormann and from other MPs and senators from Western Australia. They are clearly out of touch. They are just running a political and ideological agenda. How can they be trusted when they are so out of step with what their own Western Australian Liberals are saying?

This is something else the Abbott government should be proud of: just last week, Gina Rinehart—one of their buddies—demonstrated her commitment to and her confidence in the future of mining when she announced a $7.9 billion debt package to bankroll the Roy Hill iron ore project. Where did the Abbott government and the Western Australian senators crow about that? They do not crow about it, because they want to paint this false picture—that somehow Western Australia is under threat from the MRRT. That is all they go on about, and they are completely wrong. The Abbott government has tried to paint a very bleak picture of our future, telling Western Australians that the MRRT is holding mining back, holding investment back and holding us all back. Yet we have seen that Western Australia is the No. 1 investment destination and we have seen the massive investment that Gina Rinehart has made through the Roy Hill project. But we have not heard about that from the Abbott government. You would think that would be something they would be proud to stand up and talk about, but it does not suit their political agenda to do so. We know the facts. The fact is that Gina Rinehart is here to stay and those who have the facts in front of them—unlike the Abbott government, who just prefer ideological political opportunities—know that Western Australia is a good place to invest in. These are facts, not ideology.

I remind the chamber, as I am sure others have done, that this so-called mining tax came about as part of the Henry tax review at a very torrid time in Australia when we were facing the financial challenges of the global financial crisis. My fellow Labor Western Australian senator Senator Sterle said at the time:

I remember travelling throughout Western Australia in 2010 for that last election. If someone were a visitor to these great shores from another country and they had the misfortune of having to listen to the unfolding Liberal campaign of what they were not going to do should they gain government—it really makes me wonder—they could walk away and think, 'How did this country ever make it into the OECD?' It really was ridiculously embarrassing, but that is history and we had to put up with it.

Yet here we are, arguing this matter again, facing the hysteria from the other side and the hysteria from the mining sector and some of their mates about what will happen should we share the spoils of Western Australian mining resources not with shareholders but with the people.

The Labor Party believes that if companies are making a decent profit, like our iron ore mines in Western Australia are, they can afford to and should be expected to put a bit more into building the rest of the nation. Yet, whether in opposition or government, the Prime Minister and the Premier of WA stood beside their mining mates and other poor billionaires and told the people of Australia—the cleaners, school teachers and retail workers—that they should vote to 'axe the tax' that these unbelievably big earners would pay to contribute back to all Australians, not just shareholders.

Senator Wong told the Senate last week that the Abbott government is hiding the truth with these repeals. What the ideologically driven Abbott government is doing with the repeal of these bills is giving a tax cut worth $3.3 billion to the biggest mining companies in the world and, at the same time, hitting Australian families and small business owners with $16.3 billion in higher taxes and cuts to benefits. That is shameful. Repealing the MRRT is retrograde policy. It seeks to enrich those who need no assistance at the expense of those who need it most.

WA needs investment from government to actually build rail, roads and energy infrastructure instead of a broken promise. We do not need an Abbott Liberal government and a Barnett Liberal government cutting jobs and services. That is what both the Abbott government and the Barnett government want to do. In WA we already know that we have lost our urban rail. We know from the Prime Minister that the schoolkids bonus is on the chopping block. The Prime Minister wants to take money away from hardworking Western Australian families.

Only a government with a truly perverse set of priorities would give billions of dollars to profitable corporations while cutting funding for families, health, education and welfare as well as raising taxes for low-income earners and older Newstart recipients. Where is their mandate to take away superannuation changes for low-income workers? Where is the mandate to keep taking and taking from families and small businesses who are the backbone of this country? There is no mandate. It is their politically driven ideology that is on show here. That is all they can hold up. Only a sneaky government full of nasty surprises would try to sneak in the repeal of the schoolkids bonus, which is not even linked to the MRRT. That is exactly what this government is doing.