Article by Josh Zimmerman courtesy of the West Australian.
Treasurer praises ‘wealth-creating’ WA & its role in economic prosperity
Jim Chalmers has warned of “diabolical” outcomes for the oil and gas industry if the Coalition fails to back proposed changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax during a visit to Perth in which he also positioned WA as critical for the future prosperity of the nation.
Addressing The West Australian’s Leadership Matters breakfast on Thursday, Dr Chalmers also again ruled out reviving a resources super profits tax and batted away calls from the Australian Workers Union for a “punitive” levy on the export of unprocessed critical minerals.
He defended the Albanese Government’s “sensible, methodical” changes to the PRRT while pleading with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to “see sense” and support the tweaks rather than dealing the Greens into negotiations.
But while insisting an overhaul of Stage Three tax cuts — due to come into effect next July — had not been contemplated in the preparation of the Federal Budget handed down last week, Dr Chalmers would not categorically rule out re-examining the issue.
BOOM STATE
Dr Chalmers dedicated much of a speech delivered in front of many of WA’s leading business figures — as well as Premier Mark McGowan — to outlining the pivotal role he saw the State playing in the global green energy transition.
He said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s regular visits to WA — 12 in the past 11 months — were “less about politics and more about your economic significance”.
“We simply won’t grab the opportunities and the big chances of the defining decade ahead without WA’s economy firing and contributing,” Dr Chalmers said.
“We’ll need you and the wealth-creating, opportunity generating, industries that call this State home.
“And we recognise when Western Australia is at its best, Australia is as well.”
Reflecting on the current year — during which booming commodity prices and stronger than expected company tax receipts are on course to deliver a surprise Commonwealth surplus — Dr Chalmers said WA’s economy had grown a full percentage point faster than the rest of Australia.
RESOURCES TAXES
In the wake of changes to the PRRT — which will now reap $2.4 billion in additional tax revenue from offshore gas producers over the next four years — Dr Chalmers said he had no intention of implementing a broader mining tax.
He said discussion with the oil and gas industry over the PRRT had taken a “huge chunk of the pre-Budget period” but had landed on an outcome that was, while not quite welcome, at least palatable to the sector.
But Dr Chalmers warned that if Mr Dutton failed to back the changes, the Albanese Government would be forced to negotiate with the Greens.
“The Coalition needs to see sense here,” he said.
“It would be diabolical for Australian industry to see the Coalition vacate the field and to leave a policy as important as this to the whims of the Senate.”
STAGE THREE CUTS UNCERTAIN?
The Treasurer was less than emphatic on the issue of Stage Three tax cuts when pushed by The West’s Canberra bureau chief Katina Curtis over whether he could guarantee there would be no changes ahead of their planned commencement next July.
“There’s no sign of us changing position,” Dr Chalmers said.
“I’m not going to write the 2024 Budget nine days after handing down the 2023 Budget.
“We are always trying to do the right thing but it’s not something that we’re contemplating.”
CHALMERS FOR PM?
Dr Chalmers sounded more convincing when claiming he had no aspirations to one day replace Mr Albanese as Prime Minister.
“My goal is to be a really effective treasurer in a really great government,” he said.
“The job of treasurer is much different to the other jobs in the Cabinet.
“And if you see the Treasury in kind of individual terms, if you go around the country chasing adulation and applause, it’s not going to come and you’re not going to do your job very well.
“I think my predecessor (Josh Frydenberg) learnt that.”