Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a third time.

As I said during the committee stage, the Fuel Tax Bill 2006 and the Fuel Tax (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2006 are certainly good bills for a lot of people. In response to a couple of comments by Senator Allison during the committee stage, I will say that there is no effective excise on biodiesels. Any disadvantage that biodiesel does see is essentially a cost-of-production disadvantage.

The bill does not impact on any of the other incentive programs that the government operates in relation to biodiesel. It is dealing with the taxation treatment of diesel across the board. There is no better demonstration that there is a tax anomaly associated with this than the fact that the B49 biodiesel blend only exists in Australia. I think the comments of Senator Stephens in the committee stage in relation to that are very pertinent. On that note, I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a third time.