Page 3252 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 19 August 2008
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This is a tax on tradesmen. It is a tax on those small businesses that use vehicles like a Hilux or a Navara. A Hilux or a Navara are not necessarily flash luxury vehicles. They are commercial vehicles and they are required by many tradesmen or women for their occupations.
It is a tax on families. Many families now have to buy larger vehicles, one of which is a vehicle like the Prado, to enable them to fit their family safely into one vehicle. This bill is the Lexus buyer’s tax relief bill. If you look at the list that the Chief Minister sent to the industry and if you look at the sorts of vehicles he is suggesting that we have available for the green vehicle launch, they are the Audi A4 and the Lexus wagon. My particular favourite is the Lotus Elise convertible! We are saying that working families should be buying Lotus Elise convertibles, A, B and C class Mercedes, Peugeot 308s and Saabs. This is Mr Stanhope standing up for the environment and looking after working families.
The problem is that most of these vehicles are completely out of the reach of working families. There is no indication from our briefing that these impacts or consequences were taken into account when this proposal was developed. The opposition is concerned about these impacts. We cannot support this proposal until we are satisfied that these impacts and their consequences have been fully thought through.
The opposition is also concerned about the impact of the changes in duty and the mix of vehicles in the ACT’s fleet. Again I thank Mr Hargreaves’s office, unlike the Chief Minister’s and Treasurer’s office, for their assistance. For the information of members, at 1 August 2008 there were 272,953 vehicles in the ACT fleet. About 36 per cent of those are less than five years old. Another 26 per cent are between five and 10 years old. The rest are more than 10 years old. They are still running the report so they cannot tell me what proportion is changed in each category in each year. I hope that information is forthcoming.
We are aware that there are many vehicles that are used by families and businesses that will not rate well under the green vehicle guide. In fact, many families and young people have vehicles that are relatively old and we are now going to make it even harder for them to replace those vehicles that are having considerable impact on the environment. There is no consideration of which we have been made aware in this proposal to encourage these vehicles to be taken off the road and be replaced by more suitable vehicles. As the Chief Minister’s press release says, second-hand vehicles and motorcycle purchases will not attract a discount. If you cannot afford to buy a new Lexus or a new Audi or a new Mercedes-Benz or if you cannot afford to buy a second-hand Lotus, well, then, too bad, too sad.
I also have some concerns about the revenue implications of this proposal. The intention of the government’s proposal is that the same quantum of revenue will be collected under this tax arrangement as has been collected under the existing arrangements. What revenue is lost through registering a grade A or grade B environmentally friendly vehicle will be gained by the higher duty paid by a less environmentally friendly vehicle. Again, it is interesting to note from the Chief Minister’s speech that he thinks a one-third increase is a slight increase. He is saying that when you go from $3 to $4 per $100, the rate of duty will increase slightly.
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