Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is great to actually get an opportunity to speak in the parliament this week, having had my name down to speak every day this week and not getting an opportunity to represent the constituents of my electorate due to the government gags on the bills that we have been dealing with this week. I have been wanting to stand up to speak out against some of these measures, particularly, of course, yesterday, on the fuel tax increase. It is very important for people of Tasmania, very important in regional and remote and rural Australia. We know that in rural areas, and I know in my own electorate, so many people will be affected by this fuel excise increase. It is of course particularly concerning given that the Prime Minister said prior to the election, 'What you'll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes' and 'There should be no new tax collection without an election'. Well, of course he said that before the election and has got into government and come into this place and increased the fuel tax. Petrol tax is going up because of this government not telling the truth before the election and coming in and increasing the fuel tax.

It is not going to be well received in my home state of Tasmania. It is certainly not going to be well received in the electorate of Franklin. Many, many people and families are struggling and they will struggle even further with this additional cost to their family budgets. Indeed, RACT chief Harvey Lennon has said:

We have more people living outside the capital city than any other city and we have more people that don't have access to public transport.

Tasmanians do rely more on their vehicle and therefore anything which directly increases the cost of using motor vehicle does mean that Tasmanians as a whole will be more disadvantaged.

And indeed they will—Tasmanians as a whole and people in regional Australia. And of course there are people on the other side who are concerned about this $2.2 billion tax collection over the four years. We have had Senator Macdonald come out and say that he will not support it without a regional impact study. You would have thought that the regional development department would have been asked to do an impact study of this budget. But I have actually asked several questions of the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Deputy Prime Minister, about a regional impact study of this and other budget measures, and of course there has not been one done. And there was not going to be one done. But we did hear a revelation last week that the Treasurer has committed to come up with regional modelling on the Prime Minister's new fuel tax, according to Senator Macdonald. I would like to know where that is and whether it is going to be made public. Are we actually going to get to see what the modelling of the fuel tax increase looks like in regional Australia? I am sure the people of regional Australia would love to see it. I wonder where it is. The fuel excise was passed by the House of Representatives yesterday with a gag motion, without people having the ability to speak on it. It is now in the Senate. I wonder if Senator Macdonald has it, and I wonder if it will be shared with the public. Of course, we know it will not.

Interestingly, the Deputy Prime Minister in the past has been a supporter of lower fuel prices, which I am sure you will not be surprised to hear. Indeed, he said:

As a farmer and as someone who lives in a regional area, I know as well as anyone the real impact of rising fuel prices on the household budget. It affects every family in Australia. It means that money that would otherwise be available to spend on things that might be a family priority needs to be used to power the family motor vehicle or undertake other tasks in the region. … All Australians want lower fuel prices.

Well, he is quite right about that. This government should have been honest with the people before they went to the election about this fuel price increase. It is not okay to get elected saying 'no new taxes' and 'no tax increases' and then come into government and put up the fuel tax. It will really hurt people in my home state of Tasmania and people in regional areas right across the country. And the Deputy Prime Minister has in the past actually been an advocate of lowering petrol prices. But we know what happened here. We know that the Nationals got dudded by the Liberals in the government over this measure. We know that the diesel fuel rate was put out there as a bit of a furphy so the Nationals would focus on that and not actually care if they got a fuel excise increase instead of the diesel fuel rebate. But, of course, it was all a ruse to get the Nationals to come into line.

Senator Macdonald has the guts to stand up. Where are the other National Party members? Why are they not standing up for their areas in this place and saying they do not agree with this? Where is that regional impact study that was promised to Senator Macdonald? We need to see it. It should be made public, and every member of this House should have been able to see that regional impact study before we were asked to come in here yesterday, on a gag motion, and vote to increase the petrol tax. I do not support it, my electorate does not support it and most Australians do not support it. (Time expired)