Senate debates
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Bills
Clean Energy Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Fixed Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge — General) Bill 2011, Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011, Climate Change Authority Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011; In Committee
7:02 pm
Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source
I do not want to go on with too much political claptrap. Obviously this is part of a political deal which is designed to keep the government in government. I just have some questions about the actual tax. Minister, I think I have given you a bit of notice on this. In the train industry, for those who do not know, we are creating 60,000 new passenger journeys a week. The train lines, because of low technology and because we do not have the spectrum to run trains closer together, are at the absolute peak of their use without new technology to run closer trains. We have had an 18 per cent increase in passenger rail as opposed to a one per cent increase in car passenger journeys in the last few years. Why, Minister, have we included trains in the carbon tax and excluded cars and trucks?
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