MINERALS RESOURCE RENT TAX

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (17:28): My question is again to the Premier. Does he support abolishing the mining tax?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (17:29): It is of no particular relevance to South Australia. We do not have very substantial quantities of the minerals—or at least those that have been the subject of the mining tax—and so it has not been of direct relevance to us. It is, of course, a federal policy. It is a matter for the federal jurisdiction to make its own judgements about those matters. It is not something that I have intruded upon because it does not have any direct relevance on South Australia. We are, though, interested in any construction of a mining tax that might have direct relevance for South Australia and we have made representations on the shape and form of the tax, but we have not offered a view about the abolition or otherwise of the mining tax. Should our vital interests be at stake in the construction of a national regime of taxation, we will of course make representations.