Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

No. The government is very keen on ensuring that Australians can continue to have widespread access to fairly priced transport fuels, acknowledging that diesel and petrol are likely to remain the key fuels for many years to come. I referred to the Alternative Fuels Conversion Program, which does provide grants to vehicle owners to offset the cost of natural gas conversions and upgrades to purchased new vehicles. That is the key program in this area. I understand that of course it does require specialist refuelling facilities. There is a limit to which the taxpayers should be funding these things. The taxpayer is effectively subsidising the use of CNG by the tax-free status that it enjoys. It will not start to pay any excise until 2011, when an excise will be phased in—but we will continue to have a 50 per cent discount to fossil fuels on an energy content basis. So we do think the government’s— (Time expired)