ADJOURNMENT
Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (20:36): Labor under Anthony Albanese has failed the most basic requirement of a government, which is to ensure that it acts in the best interests of Australia and its people. Every Australian mine begins with a drill hole, and every drill hole begins with someone prepared to risk their own money on an uncertain idea.
That is why Labor's capital gains tax changes are so reckless. They do not merely alter the tax code; they attack the risk-and-reward equation that determines whether exploration happens in Australia at all. For junior explorers, who can spend years recording losses before a discovery—if they ever make one—that is penalising them for having a go.
Junior ASX-listed explorers are responsible for more than 70 per cent of Australia's geological discoveries, and around 80 per cent of junior explorers record a net loss in any given year. They rely heavily on ordinary retail investors, yet a Minerals Council of Australia study shows Labor's changes cutting an investor's return by 19 per cent. AMEC's survey found 85.1 per cent of investors would reduce or exit their investment in junior explorers if these changes proceeded.
How can a Labor government hear that evidence and press ahead? Less investment means less drilling programs. Fewer drilling programs mean fewer discoveries, fewer mines, fewer regional jobs, lower taxes and less tax revenue for hospitals, schools and roads.
This comes after Labor allowed the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive to expire in June of 2025. That successful program unlocked more than $1.1 billion in capital and around $400 million in exploration spending. First, Labor removes an incentive for exploration, then it taxes the remaining reward.
What exactly does this government think will be left to invest? The contradiction becomes even more extraordinary when we look at Export Finance Australia. Labor has ended Export Finance Australia's ability to directly finance coal, oil and gas projects in Australia or even overseas.
But the EFA has provided a guarantee of approximately $170 million for an offshore wind farm in Taiwan owned by Danish and Taiwanese interests. It also provided a $258 million loan to an Indian solar farm project in—just guess, yes—India. Why is Australian public finance available for foreign owned renewable companies while Australian coal, gas and oil projects are ruled out?
Why can Australian taxpayers help derisk energy infrastructure in another country but not the industries that employ Australians, underpin our exports, keep our lights on and pay billions towards our own public servants. I am aware of projects that will mine priority critical minerals but have been unable to access funding from Australian government bodies such as the Critical Minerals Facility, Export Finance Australia and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
In fact, we're waiting for the US to step in. How many more Australians will end up stuck in the valley of death that is Labor's financing and approvals process? The coalition will take a different path.
We will fight Labor's capital gains tax changes. We will reinstate the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive with $100 million to unlock the next wave of discoveries. We will repair broken environmental approvals, remove unnecessary barriers and restore the investment uncertainty that Australia has lost.
We'll tax Labor's toxic taxes, secure affordable and reliable energy and apply a tax-back guarantee so that stronger-than-forecast revenues mean lower taxes instead of permanently bigger government. We'll use our resources strength to build national prosperity, not punish the industries that create the wealth. Government's responsibility is to create the conditions in which families, workers and businesses can prosper because the coalition backs Australia, unlike Labor.
We'll lower taxes, we'll have cheaper power, we'll have less migration and more homes, and we'll put Australians first. That is our plan and that is our mission to fix the economy and put Australians first.