Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill. It gives me pause to mention the original mining tax, the resources super profits tax, which was expected to raise $49.5 billion over five years. In July 2010 the resources super profits tax proposal was replaced with the MRRT and an extension of the PRRT to onshore projects. Whilst the MRRT was forecast at that time to raise $26.5 billion over five years, the minerals resource rent tax revenue estimates have since been progressively revised down. It is a great pity that the $26.5 billion, or the earlier $49.5 billion, has not been available to previous federal governments or indeed our own government in order to address this severe issue of structural deficit.

The minerals resource rent tax damaged international investor confidence in Australia, and in particular the energy and resource sector. The repeal of this tax will provide a boost to the mining industry and is a strong step towards repairing perceptions that international investors have formed on Australia over recent years. We know that foreign investment is important to our future economic prosperity. Since it started, the minerals resource rent tax has only raised $400 million in net terms, yet the former government has locked in more than $16.7 billion of expenditure on an underlying cash basis over the current forward estimates or $18.4 billion of expenditure on a fiscal basis over current forward estimates. Only Labor can do their maths and their budgeting like that, and only Labor can leave us with such a diabolical mess. The repeal of the MRRT's associated expenditure will improve the budget's bottom line over the current forward estimates by $13.4 billion on an underlying cash basis and $15.1 billion on a fiscal basis.

The repeal of the MRRT will save millions of dollars in compliance expenses for small, medium and large entities. Fewer than 20 taxpayers have contributed to the net $400 million raised by the MRRT to date, but around 145 other miners have been required to submit MRRT instalment notices while making no net payment. That is, around 145 tax payers are compliant with the MRRT legislation but are not actually paying any tax. That is what happens when you to sign a tax without understanding the sector for which you are legislating. So well designed by Swannie, the Treasurer of the world, was this tax—