Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot claim to have the largest electorate in the country but I can claim to have the largest electorate in the state of Tasmania. I am more than happy to stand in front of my constituents and explain the benefits of good public policy. That is something the Labor Party once believed in—once had principles and once stood for something.

It was interesting to pick up today The Financial Review. That well-known supporter of the Liberal Party Laura Tingle today started off by saying:

If there was one budget measure which Labor and the Greens really should have supported, it was the move to reinstate indexation on fuel excise.

I found this more and more interesting, as the article went on. She said:

After all, it would have been the Coalition—not Labor—that bore the opprobrium, and both sides of politics and the budget bottom line would have benefited from the move.

We do believe that it is important to fix the budget. It was one of the fundamental commitments that we went to the election in September 2013 with, that we would restore faith in government and that we would restore faith and respect for the finances that are the product of the taxpayers of this country.

I hesitate here, but she goes on to say:

In what was a too-clever-by-half punt, Labor thought it could get the best of both worlds by counting on the Greens to support the Coalition on the indexation move, thus avoiding any political fallout but gaining the revenue whenever it eventually gets back to government—

And goodness knows when that might be—

despite never having had the courage to make the move on fuel excise itself when it was—

For six long years—

in government.

The keyword there is courage—and lack of courage, of principle, on the part of those on the other side. This is a budget that our country needs. We know that some of these measures may not be popular, but the fact that the excise is going to roads will make it a valuable contribution to regional Australia. Certainly in my electorate of Lyons there are many roads that will benefit from an excise of a very modest nature on fuel that will be legislated to be put back into roads, some of which will be in regional Australia. We were elected to a do a job, and that was to fix the mess that was left by the previous government—and fix it we will.

The rate of excise and excise-equivalent customs duty on most fuels was last changed in March 2001—13 years ago. The rate at that time was 38.143c, and that has effectively been eroded over time. The fundamental principle of this excise—to allow us to reinvest in roads and reinvest in infrastructure—has been eroded through a lack of courage. In 2001, it represented roughly 41.5 per cent of the price of petrol. Today, nationally, it is around 25 per cent, and I would say it is a little less than that in my state of Tasmania. We are prepared, when good policy is put in front of us, to look at those things. It is also important to note, for regional Australia, that the level of fuel excise will not affect businesses operating vehicles greater than 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass. Importantly, vehicles used in my electorate by the many farmers—people that work, employ people and generate wealth within my communities—will not be affected for off-road activities. The fuel tax credits that they rightly receive offset entirely the increase in the fuel excise.

This is sensible policy. This is good policy. We understand, on this side, that some of the measures in the budget that we have brought down are not popular, but we are a government that needs to fix the mess that Australia was left with after six years of Labor. We are up for the job, we are committed to the task and this is one small measure of good public policy that should be supported by the Greens, but it should also be supported by the Labor Party if they believe in something and stand for something.

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