Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Transport Industry Association supports cost recovery from the transport industry. The problem with these proposals was that they would have led to substantial over-cost recovery. No-one could justify that level of over-cost recovery, which comes from the fact that registration fees on small trucks—which are set by the states—are too high. Every year, the states increase registration fees whereas, over the last five years, the federal government has frozen excise. We have done our part to keep transport costs low, and it is time that the states also played a role.

That does not mean that we are anti-rail. Indeed, the country has been waiting for a very long period of time for the $2 billion that the government has put into rail infrastructure. Rail will play a vital role in our future transport tasks, and the government will support both rail and road to achieve maximum levels of efficiency. Instead of driving empty buses, it is time that the opposition started to drive some policy reform and support these key initiatives to get our country’s transport system working efficiently and well.

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