21 May 2010

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH THE HON. BOB BALDWIN MHR,

SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE SCIENCE AND PERSONNEL AND

ASSISTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE

ASHTONFIELD

Subjects: Kevin Rudd’s great big new tax on mining; Michael Johnson.  

E&OE……………………….………………………………………………………………………………..

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m very pleased to be here with Bob Baldwin, the local Member, with Senator Helen Coonan and obviously with Will Cant and John Richardson from Bloomfield Collieries. This is my second trip to the Hunter since becoming Opposition Leader. The first time I was here it was to do with Labor’s first great big new tax, the emissions trading scheme. Now, I’m here to do with their latest great big new tax, the so-called resources super profits tax. Now, this tax is a dagger aimed at the heart of our prosperity. Labor will tell you that it’s taxing multinational companies. Wrong. It’s taxing family owned businesses like Bloomfields, but worse than that it’s taxing jobs, it’s taxing retirees and it’s taxing the cost of living. That’s what it is. Bloomfields employ about 500 people here in the Hunter. That’s 500 well paid jobs here in the Hunter. That’s money which is being invested and re-invested in the local economy and all of this is at risk if these companies are subject to an unfair raid on their legitimate profits. It’s just dead wrong for a government to target this sector which is so important for Australia’s prosperity and it just goes to show that this is a government which can no longer be trusted to run the nation. A government which is doing wilful damage to Australia’s most important industry does not deserve to govern this country. This is an act of economic self-harm. It really is an act of economic vandalism, but the only way to stop it is to change the government and that’s what I’ll be urging people to do every day between now and the next election.

Now, as I said, I’m very pleased to be here with Bob Baldwin. Bob Baldwin has been leading the fight locally against this great big new tax. He understands its ramifications. There are so many good causes in this Newcastle region which depend upon the mining industry. Coal & Allied, for instance, sponsor the Newcastle Knights. If there’s a big hit on the profitability of a company like Coal & Allied what does that do to the Newcastle Knights? Obviously, it doesn’t do them any good. So, these are some of the many problems that this great big new tax is causing and I’m just going to ask Bob Baldwin to say a few words.

BOB BALDWIN:

Thank you, Tony, and thanks for coming up to the region again. Mining is critically important to the fortunes of the Hunter Valley and none more so than around the Maitland area, and it’s not just mum and dad businesses like Bloomfield, which is a family owned company, there are all the support industries based in areas like Tomago, through Thornton, Rutherford, Beresfield, indeed all across Maitland region. This is where the people live. This is where the people work and I can’t understand the local Labor members of parliament rejoicing in this great big new tax on the mining industry when it will directly affect their constituents, the people that we seek to represent in the parliament, and I urge those Labor members to come out against Kevin Rudd’s great big new taxes and finally stand up and support the mining industry in our area. They failed them on the ETS and now they’re going to fail them on this super tax. What the people need here is super support and that’s why I’ve brought Tony Abbott up here to provide that super support to the miners, to the people in my community that depend on this economic flow through through our region.

TONY ABBOTT:

Well done, Bob. Will, would you like to say a few words?

WILL CANT:

Members of the press, I’m not as eloquent as the last two speakers. Please forgive me. We are very concerned about what is going to be the effect of this tax. There is the scant detail out there says that our tax rate is going to rise from nigh-on 41 per cent, 41 per cent to 57 per cent. So that’s huge burden for our organisation to struggle with. So, we are very concerned about the effect on this tax, what it means to our mining organisations as well as our engineering businesses going on from there. So, we urge caution and urge reconsideration of what’s being proposed.

QUESTION:

Could this make your operation unviable if that’s the case or could you see downsizing, cutting jobs?

WILL CANT:

We’ve been an organisation that has struggled through. We will endeavour to struggle through, but the overall effect is going to be a downward pressure on employment opportunities.

QUESTION:

Will, you and Tony know that the Minerals Council of Australia asked for a resource rent tax…

TONY ABBOTT:

Don’t be misleading. They did not ask for a resource rent tax the way this Government has put it in. They wanted tax reform, they wanted a lower overall tax burden, and what they’ve got from this Government is an increased tax burden. That’s what they’ve got. This new tax is not a replacement tax, it’s an additional tax and it takes the total tax on mining up from about 37 per cent to something like 57 per cent. It takes Australia from being a high taxed mining environment to the very highest taxed mining environment in the world.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, when you spoke to our Breakfast programme this morning you mentioned that perhaps miners could put something back into the community. Could you just elaborate a little bit on that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, obviously they’re already doing that. Coal & Allied, for instance, is sponsoring the Newcastle Knights. So, they’re doing that and I’m sure that as time goes by they’d like to do more because they are responsible corporate citizens, they are Australians first and miners second. But they can’t do that kind of good work if they’ve been driven out of business and the problem with the Rudd Government’s tax is first it will kill the mining boom stone dead and second it will put greater and greater pressure on existing operations.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, talking about the Breakfast programme, you made a bit of a mistake this morning confusing…

TONY ABBOTT:

I turned the wrong way for a moment, yeah. I’m sorry about that and I’m here.

QUESTION:

You came to the right place then.

TONY ABBOTT:

I came to the right place.

QUESTION:

Do you think the Coalition’ll ever get to a point of caving in, though, on the mining tax?

TONY ABBOTT:

We certainly won’t. I mean, we will fight this to the last breath. We will oppose it in opposition, we will rescind it in government because it is a dagger aimed at the heart of Australia’s prosperity. Almost 50 per cent of Australia’s exports are from the resource sector. They will be impacted by this tax. The jobs and the investment needed to keep those exports going will be impacted by this tax and we need to pay our way in the world. If we can’t pay our way in the world our standard of living crashes. So, this is an assault on our standard of living and we won’t stand for it.

QUESTION:

Will the Hunter and therefore Maitland as a region that relies on coal mining take the brunt of this tax?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, of course it will. Access Economics calculated in the middle of last year that there was something like 17,000 jobs in the Hunter that were dependent on the resource sector and would be impacted by Labor’s first great big new tax, the emissions trading scheme. The same jobs will be impacted by this latest great big new tax from the Labor Party and obviously if there are 17,000 jobs under pressure that’s the whole prosperity of the region which is at risk.

QUESTION:

So, does the Opposition have a plan to return more from the mining industry to [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, our plan is to stop this tax. The best way that we can get more out of the mining industry is to encourage it to expand. A bigger mining industry will pay more tax. A more profitable mining industry will pay more tax and that’s as it should be. A more profitable and expanding mining industry will employ more people; they will pay tax. That’s the way to do it. Grow the mining industry, the mining industry will return more to the community. Contract the mining industry and the mining industry will return less to the community.

QUESTION:

Does that go against environmental and health groups who are calling for mines to even decrease?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, obviously our mining industry along with every other industry has got to operate in accordance with the best possible environmental standards and no-one’s suggesting that those environmental standards should be watered down, but within those existing standards the mining industry was set to expand. Now it’s set to contract because of Labor’s great big new tax.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, can you guarantee that under the Coalition there will be absolutely no additional taxes on the mining industry?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we are in the business of opposing this tax. We will oppose it tooth and nail, we will oppose it to the last breath in our body and we mean to stop it, but the only way you can be sure to stop it is to change the government.

QUESTION:

Michael Johnson, is it embarrassing for the Coalition having him still voting for the Coalition now that he’s been expelled?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I feel sorry for Michael but he’s done the wrong thing by the Liberal National Party and he’s paid an appropriate price.

QUESTION:

Do you need to give him goodwill now, then, to keep getting his preferences? 

TONY ABBOTT:

As I said, he’s done the wrong thing by our party. Nearly all of us in the parliament owe our place to our parties as well as to the electorate and if you can’t maintain the confidence of your party it’s very hard to stay in the parliament, simple as that.

Thank you.

[ends]