Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Fuel Tax (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2006 introduces a single system of tax fuel credits for Australian business from 1 July and will phase in extensions to eligibility between then and 1 July 2012. This legislation provides for the removal or reduction of the amount of excise levied on taxable fuels and, when fully implemented, means that fuel tax will only effectively be applied to private use of fuel on-road in motor vehicles and in certain off-road applications; business use of fuel on-road in vehicles with a gross vehicle mass of more than 4.5 tonnes or less; and business use of fuel on-road in vehicles with a gross vehicle mass of more than 4.5 tonnes, but only to the extent of the applicable road user charge.

Before I go into the substance of my contribution, I want to say a few things to the member for Lingiari in his absence. I share his great concern, as I think every rural member does, that in remote areas all over Australia—whether it is an area in Western Australia, in the Northern Territory or in the south-western corner of my electorate—the price of fuel is very expensive. There is no denying that. But I do not think it is fair to suddenly drag out the GST as a major component of that. The reason—and this is often conveniently forgotten by our critics and, dare I say, by the opposition—is that, at the time of the introduction of the GST, we effectively reduced the excise by 7c a litre.

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