Page 5425 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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third-party insurance levies from the government-controlled sphere. In New South Wales this leaves a registration and road tax component for the larger cycles at $66. The equivalent fee in the ACT is $105, or about 80 per cent more. How equivalent is that?
The difference in costs between the ACT and New South Wales for a motor car is only about 8 per cent - $185 and $170 respectively. So, while fees for cars may have some equivalence, there is absolutely no argument for raising fees for large bikes for this reason, because there simply is no equivalence for those vehicles between the two States.
The Government, in desperation, having all its arguments overturned by the motorcyclists, has thrown in a wild card of allegations of New South Wales residents registering motorbikes in the ACT in order to pay lower fees. The Government has not been able to back up these claims with evidence of motor vehicle registry records showing a disproportionate number of New South Wales residents registering motorcycles illegally in the ACT. If such cases existed, I am sure that by now the Government would have had them investigated and publicised, to add fuel to its arguments that fees can be justifiably increased. If that can be proved to be happening, persons involved can be charged, I think, under the Motor Traffic Act. They can also perhaps be charged under the ACT Crimes Act, as it is soon to be called.
The Government cannot show good and just reason for the exorbitant increase in charges on motorbikes in the over 600cc category. Such increases are simply a revenue-raising effort, and not a terribly efficient one at that. The Government, by targeting such a small group, have not only alienated a section of the community, that group included, but also cut themselves short of about $50,000 which they could have raised painlessly, without a murmur from the community, in the way I suggested earlier.
Owners of large bikes need to be treated fairly, along with other vehicle owners. The effective $50 slug that was levied on them should be removed, allowing their fee increases to fall back in line with those applying to owners of smaller bikes. This, members will recall, is still a much greater increase than that being carried by motor car owners. Any extra $1 levy that may or may not be raised by the Government, which could then be placed across the board on all road users, would raise additional revenue for the Government; in addition, a certain amount of that extra money could be spent on the training of motorcycle riders, for example, as that would contribute to greater safety on the roads for all users.
In conclusion, it is interesting to look at a comparison between ACT and New South Wales motorcycle registration fees. In 1984-85, in the ACT we were $27 and New South Wales were $22. They raised theirs to $23 in 1985-86 and
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