Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

‘left wing’ says my colleague—in the first budget. It caught everyone by surprise, journalists and the parliament, let alone the people that would be paying those taxes. But we should have seen the signs very early on, because early on in the term of this government they sought to increase the costs and charges upon truck drivers of this country. It was one of the first decisions they made. That is the history of this legislation, and they have not let go.

It is now 12 months into the government’s term and they are still insistent on increasing those charges. What has changed from February to now? A lot has changed. We all know the economy has changed. The Reserve Bank rushing cannot reduce interest rates quickly enough, and there is good reason for it. Consumer confidence, business confidence and investment are at an all-time low and we are feeling the brunt of the international crisis. But the government still insists on increasing costs and charges upon owner-operators. They still insist that this is necessary—because the state governments have dictated it to them, hungry for the dollar to prop up their own budgets.

This is very much state-driven legislation, and the government, who promised to eliminate the blame game, have decided to acquiesce to the states. We misunderstood the meaning of ‘eliminating the blame game between the states and the federal government’. What they meant was, ‘We won’t blame each other for increasing taxes.’ That is what they meant, and this is the perfect example, because this is state and federal cooperation in increasing costs and charges. Let that be known. This is a COAG decision, a state and federal decision by the transport ministers to increase costs and charges, and they are not letting go. It first came in February and now we are in December, in the last few days of the session, and they are still insistent upon it, even though so much has changed.

When we were in government we had similar recommendations come before us to increase the costs and charges upon the transport industry. We never even contemplated indexation of fuel, I should add.