Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

In terms of the question that was asked, I was asked about Allen Transport. In terms of the trucks that were spoken about, there was not the specification that the member for Murray says there was. Perhaps if she had written the member for Wannon's question it might have gone a different way. But returning to the question that was asked about a carbon price on petrol, we have been very clear in the last 24 hours that there will not be a price on carbon put on petrol for passenger motor vehicles and for light commercial vehicles.

In terms of the rest of the detail of the carbon package, I know that the opposition is greatly interested in what the price on carbon should be. In the very near future more detail will emerge. But let us go back to what has been put on the record already. We have agreed to a Productivity Commission review on fuel excise. We have said that there will be a Productivity Commission review on fuel excise. It is anticipated that this review will include an examination of the merits of the regime based on carbon content or energy content of fuels. The Henry review looked at this in some detail. It recommended replac­ing the revenue raised through fuel excise with direct charges for road use. The review noted that this would actually result in a reduction in fuel tax paid.

I am not going to pre-empt the rec­ommendations of the Productivity Com­mission's review, which has not even started, but let us be very clear when it comes to fuel excise policy in this place. The government is not afraid of good policy. That is why as recently as two weeks ago we finished the job which the opposition should have done. I know that Mr Minchin is no longer here, but he recognised that for excises in the fuel tax policy it was important to include alternative fuels such as LPG. We finished the job which should have been done by those opposite many years ago. If they actually want to engage in a proper policy debate then they will have to do more than just oppose ideas.

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