Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise this evening to talk about these four bills that bring to fruition the government's policy to reintroduce indexation to the fuel ask excise. As the Treasurer said in his remarks, this is just part of the government's continuing efforts to methodically implement our budget measures over the past two years. I would like to take this opportunity at the outset to congratulate the Minister for Infrastructure, Warren Truss, Treasurer, Joe Hockey, and the Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann on successfully reaching an agreement today. I also thank those opposite and recognise the efforts of the shadow Treasurer and the member for McMahon for being part of bringing a solution to the table to reintroduce the indexation of fuel excise to CPI.

This is a significant structural reform that supports the government's vision for a stronger and more prosperous economy. Reintroducing the indexation of fuel excise to inflation will provide a stable and growing source of revenue to the government and will enable us to deliver our historic infrastructure package of over $50 billion, the biggest infrastructure spend in the history of the Commonwealth.

It is always important to recognise that this does come at a small cost to families. The average family, it is estimated, will incur a cost of some 40c to 50c a week. But, at the end of the day, that cost is worth it, given the infrastructure improvements that we are going to see that are going to allow our small business people and those who frequently use our roads increased productivity and increased business opportunities.

Following this agreement, we will see the Roads to Recovery program receive a boost of some $1.1 billion over the next two years, building on the additional $350 million provided under the program in the 2014-15 budget. This investment will directly affect all road users in a positive way. Again, we are seeing that people want value for money, and we will see that delivered through this agreement.

The Roads to Recovery funding will go straight to local councils around the nation to upgrade and repair local roads according—importantly—to their own priorities. Local councils are our grassroots government bodies. They know what local roads need to be fixed. I am sure that the councillors at Logan City Council and Gold Coast City Council will be all too pleased to receive the increase in funding to address local road issues, given the rapid development and population growth in both of those council areas. It is worth recognising that this will follow on from the double funding arrangement for the Roads to Recovery program in the 2015 budget. There is no shortage of good projects for our local councils to fund, and the Roads to Recovery funding will be a critical boost for infrastructure and for jobs.

Under the measures proposed, the fuel excise will increase twice a year, in February and August, in line with movements in the CPI. This policy is currently implemented by a 12-month tariff proposal, and the passage of this legislation will make the policy permanent.

As I said earlier, this will have a modest impact on motorists. For a typical household which consumes 50 to 60 litres of fuel per week, the estimated price impact of this fuel excise indexation will be around 40c to 50c per week. This measure will provide a predictable and growing source of revenue which will help the government boost its investment in infrastructure. I think we all recognise that it is a small price to pay for better roads, better infrastructure, more productivity and more jobs. Over the five years to the end of 2018-19, this measure is expected to raise some $3.6 billion. Implementing this important and fiscally responsible reform will contribute to our government's efforts to build a stronger and more prosperous economy and a stable, secure source of funding for road infrastructure into the future.

It is this government's focus on a long-term, responsible economic plan that will help us recover from and fix the debt and deficit fiasco that was left by those opposite. Today's agreement to reintroduce the indexation of fuel excise to inflation is just one measure in a long list of achievements of this government over the past couple of weeks. Decisions made by this government to deliver lower, simpler and fairer taxes have—predominantly through the removal of the carbon and mining taxes—reduced the overall tax burden by some $5.4 billion. We have seen the parliament endorse our fair and sustainable pension measures, and last week the parliament passed the small business tax cut and the instant asset write-off. On Wednesday last week we signed the free trade agreement with China. This has the potential to add billions of dollars and thousands of new jobs to our economy. Further, we have seen the launch of the white paper on northern development, setting out a plan for jobs, investment and infrastructure in Northern Australia over the next 20 years.

Our economic plan is working, and we are continuing to work towards reducing the projected debt and deficits that were left by the previous government. Every day we are getting on with building a stronger and more prosperous economy, and the revenue generated from this measure will assist in building local infrastructure identified by our local councils, thereby improving business productivity, growth and jobs. I know that, with the recent budgets handed down by our local councils, they will be more than happy to see that additional funding made available for these important road projects. Both the councils in my electorate do an enormous amount of work in rapidly growing areas, and it will significantly add to the ability for our councils to do the vital work to build, grow, develop and repair our local roads. I commend these bills to the House.

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