Page 1255 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 May 2006
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February 2004 titled Revenue raising issues in the ACT. This report recommended that the ACT government review the environmental sustainability of taxes on motor vehicles, and the government supported this in principle in June 2004, saying that it would be considered in the implementation of the sustainable transport plan.
Goal 3.1 of the sustainable transport plan for the ACT seeks to encourage the use of more resource-efficient and low-emission private motor vehicles through regulation and pricing of vehicle registration, reduction in stamp duty, et cetera. Although this plan was delivered in April 2004, also about two years ago, such measures are yet to be implemented. The government did give itself five years to implement the sustainable transport plan, but I think that with current evidence of increasing oil prices and the reality of climate change we need to push this along faster. Oil prices will continue to rise and such a measure can be introduced in a way that gains broad community support. Indeed, this can be one measure towards achieving the reductions in greenhouse gases that the government is considering.
The motor sales industry has seen incredible demand for hybrid vehicles since their introduction. Media commentaries have noted that the demand for suspect American sport utility vehicles is giving way to modest hybrids. Some automotive giants face an uncertain future if they do not adapt to this change in consumer demand amid rising petrol prices and environmental concerns.
Australia is currently lagging in adopting these changes. The United Kingdom, Germany and even the United States of America have already implemented these incentive schemes. The United Kingdom has a vehicle registration scheme based on the level of grams of carbon dioxide emitted by a vehicle per kilometre. Even President Bush, who has stated publicly many times that he safeguards his country’s right to use 25 per cent of the world’s resources and does not want to see any compromise in lifestyle, and whose country produces the most greenhouse gases, signed a new energy bill into law on 8 August 2005, delivering a revised federal tax incentive program for hybrid cars.
I expect that the Assembly and community believe that we need to implement financial incentives for low-emission cars, but perhaps there are different ideas on how we should do this. For this reason, I have purposely not included such details in my proposed amendments and have asked the ACT government to commit to implementing such a scheme and to place the details in the relevant regulatory instrument at a later stage, after consultation.
One factor to consider before such a scheme is implemented is how many grades of reduction or categories of emission levels should be used. The UK is very well advanced on this issue and has around 20 categories, which provide for incentives across all styles and sizes of vehicles. The level of carbon dioxide for each category is increased by five grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre per year, to encourage manufacturers to constantly improve the efficiency of their vehicles and to ensure that the government does not lose significant revenue as technology advances.
The only detail included in my amendment is a measure of carbon dioxide per 100 kilometres. Although motor vehicles do emit other air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and benzene, the measure of carbon dioxide is the most commonly accepted in already established
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