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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1137 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

reasonably entitled to think that the concept of seasonal registration flies in the face of access to the network concept

Turning to the varying costs of vehicle registration, the size of a motorcycle is considerably less than that of a sedan, which is considerably less than that of a massive station wagon running on leaded fuel, which again is less than that of a bus, a very large pantechnicon or truck. At the moment, that is the way the cost is structured. Of course, that means that it is not about an access to the network fee, otherwise we would all be paying the same. We all pay the same access fee for a telephone network, regardless of how much we use it. That concept is a nonsense, Mr Speaker. It is obvious to me that these changes have not been fully thought through.

Low-income earners will be disadvantaged by these changes. For instance, a two-car family would find the registering of two vehicles an enormous impost on the family budget. If one parent were to lose a job or an unexpected bill were to arrive, getting both vehicles registered may not be a priority for that family. They may choose to leave a vehicle in the garage till they have the money. That may be weeks, but it may also be months. I mentioned that to the minister on Tuesday in the company of Mr Rugendyke and his response to me was: "We should not legislate to make things easier for people who cannot even manage their own finances."

Mr Smyth: I did not say that.

MR HARGREAVES: That is a direct quote, Minister. I will repeat it: "We should not legislate to make things easier for people who cannot even manage their own finances." He is not a clever, caring minister. I am not by this motion legislating to make things easier. I am asking the government not to legislate to make things harder.

Used car dealers are another group that will be adversely affected by these changes. A car can take days, weeks or months to sell and in some cases a vehicle's registration can expire before the vehicle has been sold. The minister will argue that we cannot change the regulations because of the national road rules. I notice that the minister is putting his case to Mr Rugendyke, and supposedly to others later, instead of doing the normal thing and standing up in this chamber and sharing it with the rest of us. If we were was at school, Mr Speaker, we would say, "Share the joke with the rest of us, Brendan."

The minister will argue that we cannot change the regulations because of the national road rules, saying we will look silly if we are not with the rest of them. That is simply not true. Indeed, referring back to when the road transport legislation was brought into this chamber, I sought to amend it and Mr Rugendyke amended my amendment. We ended up with something which was different from elsewhere in the country. We know that the application of those road rules has caused turmoil in New South Wales and that that state is now looking at how it can apply things differently there. We know that Western Australia was particularly tardy in coming on board with the national transport regulations. Each state has different requirements. The ACT is no different in that regard.

The minister would be aware of the national heavy vehicle registration scheme which was approved unanimously by the transport ministers in 1996 and has been implemented in most states and territories. According to Lynne Habner from the National Road

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