Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These bills impose taxation and, therefore, all amendments must be moved in the form of requests.

INTERSTATE ROAD TRANSPORT CHARGE AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 2008

Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.

The question is that the bill be passed without request.

Question agreed to.

ROAD CHARGES LEGISLATION REPEAL AND AMENDMENT BILL 2008

Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.

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

I table a supplementary explanatory memorandum relating to the government requests for amendments to be moved to this bill. The memorandum was circulated in the chamber earlier today.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have five minutes to go before embarking on what is a fairly complicated series of requests for amendments to what on the face of it seems to be a difficult bill, the Road Charges Legislation Repeal and Amendment Bill 2008. The opposition put out a series of requests for amendments, indicating first of all that we were prepared to concede the increase to 21-odd cents subject to those moneys being spent in an appropriate way, subject to it not being increased after that by indexation, subject to certain resolutions regarding rest areas, subject to consultation and subject to a number of other provisions in the opposition’s requests for amendments. I am delighted to say that the government has picked up a lot of those themes, but we have only just recently received the actual requests for amendments. The committee stage of this bill could be quite complicated if we try to sort through them. Similarly, Senator Fielding has a number of requests for amendments, addressing some of the similar concerns that the opposition has and that we have included in different forms in our requests.

What I am suggesting, bearing in mind that the committee stage has only another three or four minutes to go, is that perhaps the departmental officials and advisers from Senator Fielding, the opposition and anyone else who is interested, might get together and work out amongst this complicated series of requests which ones are the same so that we can indicate as quickly as possible that we will not have a long debate on the removal of the possibility of indexation, that we will not have a long debate on the 21c and that we will not have a long debate on the consultation process. From what I see from a quick look at Senator Fielding’s request, which I had not seen until about five minutes ago, I do not imagine that we will have a long debate—or not from the opposition—on the proposal related to the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program.

Because the other parts of the opposition’s requests for amendments have effectively been picked up either by the government or by Senator Fielding, I assume that, after consultation with the government, some of those will not necessarily be pursued by the opposition. But there are a couple of things that the opposition will be insisting upon. They are that the road user charge should not go up unless the government can show that they are spending more on roads than they are collecting from the industry. Secondly, we will want something in there about those additional heavy-vehicle rest areas. I understand Senator Xenophon has also been doing some work on that, but I am not sure where he has got to with the government. Thirdly, we will be insisting on our request for an amendment regarding harmonisation. But I will argue when we get to that that it is probably an amendment that the government should have no fear of. I have been told by government sources that harmonisation is happening in any case. If that is the case, then I would not imagine the government would have any objection. We need to understand exactly what each other is doing and where our goals are being achieved with different words. I think it would be useful, while we have lunch, for the officials to sort out which amendments we oppose—which ones we are going to fight about—so that it takes up minimal time. That is my proposal.

Progress reported.