Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members for participating in the debate on the Interstate Road Transport Charge Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2008 and the Road Charges Legislation Repeal and Amendment Bill 2008. The purpose of the Interstate Road Transport Charge Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2008 is to amend the Interstate Road Transport Charge Act 1985, which imposes registration charges for heavy vehicles registered under the Australian government’s voluntary Federal Interstate Registration Scheme, FIRS. The bill also allows regulations to be made to specify heavy vehicle charges for application to FIRS vehicles.

FIRS is a registration scheme that covers only about three per cent of Australia’s trucks. The rest are covered by state and territory schemes. All of the states have imposed the new charges since 1 July this year. It will enable the implementation of the registration charge elements of the 2007 Heavy Vehicles Charges Determination, which revises national charges for heavy vehicles and trailers for application to heavy vehicles registered under FIRS. The determination was agreed by the Australian Transport Council in February 2008 and was implemented by the states on 1 July 2008. It is self-evident that it is in Australia’s economic interest that registration charges for heavy vehicles, which regularly trade across state borders, be consistent. I commend the bill to the chamber.

The other bill we are dealing with cognately is the Road Charges Legislation Repeal and Amendment Bill 2008. I thank senators for participating in the debate. The bill repeals the Road Transport Charges (Australian Capital Territory) Act 1993 as well as making consequential amendments to the Road Transport Reform (Heavy Vehicles Registration) Act 1997 to allow the ACT government to set its own registration charges consistent with the registration charges adopted in the other jurisdictions.

The main impact of the bill is to amend the Fuel Tax Act 2006 to set the road user charge rate at 21c per litre in line with the 2007 Heavy Vehicles Charges Determination. Like all motorists, truck operators pay 38.14c per litre at the bowser for fuel; however, unlike the rest of us they receive a fuel tax rebate of 18.51c per litre. The balance, 19.66c per litre, is known as the road user charge. That rate was specifically set by the previous government in 2000 to recover the trucking industry’s share of road infrastructure costs incurred by governments. It was proposed by the National Transport Commission after an extensive consultation process undertaken during 2007. This is an issue that was inherited from the previous government—