Mr ABBOTT (Warringah—Leader of the Opposition) (15:15): I think today in question time we had five answers from the government that extensively quoted from President Obama's State of the Union address. It was a very selective presentation, by the government, from President Obama's address. There was one quite resonant declaration from President Obama, which I would like to share with the House and which, funnily enough, did not make it into anything said by ministers opposite. Let us listen to what President Obama said: 'Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot keep,' and he went on: 'but we must keep the promises we have already made.' Why didn't the government quote President Obama? Let me repeat it: 'Our government shouldn't make promises we cannot keep but we must keep the promises we've already made.' For the benefit of ministers opposite, let me say that the government did promise $10.5 billion in mining tax revenue—a promise that it could not keep and always knew or should have known that it could not keep. It did promise not to change the mining tax, a promise that it is preparing to break. Haven't we seen this all before, from this government? It makes commitments it cannot keep, it blusters about its ability to deliver and then it betrays people—a consistent pattern of conduct from this government. The government said the mining tax would raise $10.5 billion, it said it would rebate royalties and it said that the miners could offset the market value of their assets. The tax has not raised the revenue and the government is now preparing to break the deal. Another betrayal is coming up. As sure as night follows day, another betrayal from this government is coming up. It might happen before the election. It will certainly happen after the election, if this government is re-elected. It will gouge the mining industry, as sure as night follows day. Either it will no longer rebate royalties—it will change the basis upon which the tax is calculated—or it will extend the mining tax to more minerals. This is absolutely inevitable. It is absolutely certain, because you cannot fund $15 billion worth of programs with $126 million of revenue. Not even Wayne Swan thinks that sum adds up. It cannot stop the spending so it must raise the tax. It is as certain as night follows day. What is also as certain as night follows day is that this government will never be straight with people about what it is doing. Almost everything that this government has ever said about the mining tax has turned out to be false. It was going to fund company tax cuts. Remember the company tax cuts that the mining tax was going to fund, that were so important for maintaining investment and so important for preserving the competitiveness of the Australian economy? That lasted about 12 months. The mining tax never funded any company tax cuts. In fact, in a state of cold panic or blue funk at the impact of the carbon tax last year, the mining tax funded, or was supposed to fund, a series of politically targeted handouts. Then the mining tax was going to raise massive amounts of money. It started at $10.5 billion, before the last election, when the mining tax was announced. By the time the MYEFO for that year was released, $10.5 billion had become $7.4 billion. But then, in the 2011 budget, rescue was at hand. It went up to $7.7 billion. When MYEFO came out—the fourth attempt to estimate the revenue—it was down to $7.5 billion. In the fifth attempt, in last year's budget, it was going to raise $6.5 billion in its first two years of operation. And then, in November last year, when MYEFO came out, it was going to raise $4.4 billion and $2 billion this year. The great shrinking mining tax eventually became the great disappearing mining tax; just $126 million was raised. Even this information had to be dragged out of the government. Mr Pyne: It was illegal! Mr ABBOTT: It was illegal, the government told us, for weeks. It could not possibly release any information—finally, $126 million or less than 10 per cent of the much reduced estimates. As Dennis Atkins in the Courier-Mail said this morning, with the money raised from the mining tax, they would struggle to cover the hospitality bill at Eddie Obeid's ski lodge! That is what they have done. Then, by the time you offset the company tax and pay for the administration, virtually nothing has been raised from the mining tax. Finally, the government said that the mining tax was all about 'spreading the benefits of the boom'. Well, $126 million divided by 22 million Australians is just a little more than $5 each—aren't we grateful? The mining tax was always a bad idea. It was always terrible policy for three reasons: first, you do not speed up the slow lane of the economy by slowing down the fast lane; second, you do not strengthen our economy by weakening its strongest sector; and third—something that members opposite just do not understand—you will never build prosperity by increasing taxes. It was always bad policy. But, if the idea was bad, the execution has been even worse. The minister for resources—and I have to say that, if there is one of the three signatories to the mining tax deal who does have some respect in the sector, it is the minister for resources—had a rare burst of candour in question time today when he said, 'This was the tax the mining industry wanted.' Of course they wanted it, because it was the tax that they never had to pay! It was a tax that they knew they were never going to have to pay. They did not want any new tax but, if there had to be a new tax, let it be one that they did not have to pay! The truth is that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer—who, let us never forget, personally negotiated this tax; the great negotiator!—personally negotiated this tax. Treasury officials were kicked out of the room. The great negotiator was comprehensively out-negotiated and comprehensively outwitted by the mining bosses. You know, I think she knew she had been outwitted. I am sure she knew she had been outwitted and I am sure the Treasurer knew he had been outwitted, but they did not really care that they had been outwitted because they just needed a deal to take to the election. They needed a deal to take to the election, because do you know what they counted on? Breaking it as soon as the election had come and gone. There is a pattern of conduct here. This is a government that promises whatever it takes to get what it wants today and breaks that promise to get what it wants tomorrow. It does it again and again and again. The Prime Minister told us before the last election—told the Australian people before the election—that there would be 'no carbon tax' to win the votes of the people, and she promptly broke that promise to get the support of the Greens. The Prime Minister promised that there would be mandatory precommitment for poker machines to get the support of Andrew Wilkie, the member for Denison, and she then promptly broke that promise to keep the support of caucus. The Prime Minister promised that there would be a surplus this year; she made that promise to demonstrate her economic credibility, and then promptly broke that promise to win support from voters so that bribe after bribe could be offered in the run-up to this election. The government promised the miners a tax they would not pay to buy peace before the last election. Now it is going to break that promise so that it can pay for a whole range of pre-election bribes. This is a pattern of conduct from this government. I want to say today, a day where this parliament has done great things, that this government is not all bad. We did do something this morning—and the government did something this morning—that we should all respect. But, when it comes to the fundamentals of governing this nation, no government has ever been worse. It is fundamentally incompetent and fundamentally untrustworthy, and the mining tax shambles is an absolute illustration of those facts. The Prime Minister, let's never forget, told us back in June 2010 that 'a good government had lost its way'. That is what she said in June 2010: 'A good government had lost its way.' Well, she never even believed that. She never even believed that it was a good government, because she subsequently told us, to carpet bomb the member for Griffith out of a leadership challenge, that in fact it was a chaotic and dysfunctional government. She said back then in June 2010 that three things would be fixed: she would fix climate change, and she has fixed that by introducing the carbon tax that she said there never ever would be; she said she would fix the border protection disaster, and that is so fixed that we have had 26,000 illegal arrivals by boat on this Prime Minister's watch, the largest influx in our history; and then she said she would fix the mining tax, and she has fixed the mining tax with an act of pure genius—the only tax ever introduced that hardly raises any revenue. It damages investments, it damages jobs, but it does not raise any revenue. But that is only one half of the dynamic duo now responsible for the stewardship of this nation; what about the Treasurer? He was going to give us a surplus; he promised it on, I think, 366 separate occasions, and now there is no surplus. He promised us that he was going to give us half a million jobs within two years; time is almost up and we have got less than a third of the new jobs promised. Then he promised us, of course, $2 billion in mining tax revenue in this financial year, and we have had less than 10 per cent. Has there ever been a worse government in our history? I used to think that the Whitlam government had been worse, but that is so unfair to Gough Whitlam, who never sold his soul to the Greens the way this government has. We have had some remarkable combinations at the top of government in our country. We had the remarkable combination of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating—a great reforming pair at the top of this country. And then we had the remarkable combination of John Howard and Peter Costello—probably the best Prime Minister-Treasurer combination in our history. And what have we got now? This Prime Minister and this Treasurer—Gillard and Swan. No wonder the Australian people cannot wait for an election.