HOST: PM, thanks for joining us.
PM: Good to be with you.
HOST: Ken Henry made these 138 recommendations. You appear to have acted on only about four or five. Have you shied away from a major overhaul of the tax system?
PM: What we have gone for is the big reforms here. We're setting up Australia for the long-term future, protecting our economy, making sure our Government finances remain strong, but also making sure that working Australians, working families and small business get their fair share. The reforms on superannuation are key because so many people don't have enough for their retirement income.
HOST: But you are paying for much of this with this massive new tax on the miners, it is pretty hefty. Isn't there a danger you could drive away the very industry that has helped save our economy from the global down turn?
PM: Well, let's be very clear about this being a Super Profits Tax. You see, over the last decade, mining companies have earned $80 billion dollars worth of super profits but only nine billion dollars was coming back in addition to the Australian people. I think what we want is a fair return for the mining industry but we want a fair return for all Australians as well because it's the Australian people who own these assets.
We have got to build our hospitals, build our schools, build our roads, our rail, our port, and therefore we need those resources to do that for the future.
HOST: Yeah, big changes to super and as we've seen, business aren't happy. Can they afford it?
PM: Well, remember, for business we're also bringing down the company tax rate. I mean, you can't have it both ways here. What we're doing with our business community is bringing down the company tax rate which is already too high against international standards, bringing it back to the middle of the field, but also for our small businesses, we're bringing in this new change also, to make sure that when it comes to their $5,000 of expenditure on core assets in a given year, that they can write that off almost immediately. That's very important as well, so therefore we're doing that to enable them to help with the super needs of working families because our working families deserve it.
HOST: Alright, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it, thank you.
PM: Good to be with you.