Households and small businesses will be big beneficiaries of the Gillard Government’s critical reforms to deliver a fairer return from the nation’s non-renewable resources, boosting the super savings of Australians by $500 billion by 2035.
Legislation for the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is being finalised for introduction to parliament after more than a year of public debate and extensive consultations with industry and other stakeholders.
The MRRT will lock in the benefits of the mining boom for all Australians and help tackle the challenges posed by our patchwork economy, where different sectors are growing at different speeds and many small businesses are doing it tough.
The revenue from the MRRT will:
- Secure a boost to the superannuation of 8.4 million workers, increasing their pool of retirement savings by $500 billion by 2035, according to the Federal Treasury;
- Deliver a special new tax benefit for 2.7 million small businesses and a cut in company tax;
- Fund vital infrastructure to help address capacity constraints, particularly in the nation’s fast-growing mining regions.
This major boost for workers, small businesses and infrastructure is opposed by Mr Abbott and the Coalition who insist that the benefits of the mining boom should not be spread to all Australians.
The mining industry is a key part of Australia’s strong economy and continues to power ahead in full knowledge of the MRRT. Earnings from energy and mineral exports set a new record of $175 billion in 2010-11, increasing 27 per cent from a year earlier.
The $430 billion pipeline of resource and energy projects either underway or on the drawing boards shows that this strong performance is set to continue as companies invest in growing the industry even further.
The MRRT is central to the Government’s plan to strengthen and broaden the nation’s economy and spread the benefits of the boom to more Australians.