Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The Road Charges Legislation Repeal and Amendment Bill 2008 introduces another series of Labor taxes—tax rises, new taxes. That is what Labor is about in government. It is part of its $19 billion tax grab out of the budget. This adds additional costs to every Australian family. The legislation before the House will put up the price of food in every supermarket around the nation. Make no mistake: this is not some isolated slug on the trucking sector that will not have an impact on the economy overall. The reality is that this is a tax increase and it will affect every Australian.

The amendments that the government are putting before the House tonight are basically a rewrite of amendments the coalition moved in this House, so those two amendments will not be opposed by the opposition. However, we did move two other very important amendments to this legislation, amendments that would have put some performance criteria on the government to ensure that they actually deliver on stated commitments to provide road stops and deliver a safety package. We also wanted the government to start delivering on their empty rhetoric about harmonising regulations and laws between the states. Through our amendments we would have guaranteed that there were road stops built with the $70 million package that is being provided and that, in fact, if they were not built, there would be no further increases. It would put a lock on the government putting in another tax increase. Our proposals would have guaranteed some performance.

States have been promising for years to deliver common regulations and they have failed. In my speech on the second reading I highlighted scores of examples of inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in the system because successive governments have failed to reach agreement on the issue of common standards. Containers have to be two foot shorter in one state than in others and bales a couple of inches narrower. All of this kind of nonsense needs to be stopped. The government, with this legislation, is under no obligation to actually deliver on what it says.

The minister said in his earlier comments that the government had to change the legislation to fund rest stops because the previous government had not funded rest stops. That is simply not true. It is a dishonest statement. The previous government funded many rest stops. If he goes and has a look around he will be able to find them quite easily. There is one in my electorate.

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