15th Aug 2012, 4:06 PM – Senate Motions - Minerals Resource Rent Tax - Monthly updates on revenue

This division relates to the Policy For a minerals resource rent tax.

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Senator Mathias Cormann that:

(1)   That the Senate notes that:

_ (a)   on 18 March 2012, the Prime Minister promised former Senator Bob Brown, then Leader of the Australian Greens, that the Government would publish monthly updates on revenue collections from the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT); and_

_ (b)   the MRRT legislation came into effect on 1 July 2012._

(2)   That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Treasurer, no later than noon on the 20th day of every month, information relating to the MRRT revenue collected by the Government in the preceding calendar month, broken down by state or territory of collection and by commodity type.

(3)   If the Senate is not sitting when a statement is ready for presentation, the statement is to be presented to the President in accordance with standing order 166.

(4)   This order is of continuing effect.

This means that the majority did not support requiring the government to provide monthly updates on the revenue collected by the MRRT.

Debate in Parliament

Senator Cormann said that "the government has been persistently avoiding scrutiny of their mining tax revenue estimates for the last two years".

Senator Jacinta Collins, speaking on behalf of the Labor Party, responded that "we will commit to publishing monthly updates on revenue collections for resource rent taxes and will be consulting the Australian Taxation Office on the best way that this can be achieved".

Background to the Motion

The minerals resource rent tax ('MRRT') began on 1 July 2012 and applies to profits earned from the extraction of mineral resources such as coal and iron ore.(For more detailed information on the MRRT, see the Australian Tax Office's MRRT website.)

References