Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

If you do not, well, so much for defending working families. The costs associated with this tax hike are not going to stop here; Australians will also pay. The increased costs will be passed on to the consumer. You cannot expect the trucking companies to bear the weight of this on their own. How will those costs be passed on? Every time you buy a loaf of bread, every time you buy a litre of milk, every time you buy a box of cornflakes, every time you buy something that is shipped by a truck, you will feel the impact of this tax grab. I cannot believe that the Rudd government would increase a tax when so many Australians are hurting. Every time I listen to Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, he is talking to me about driving down the cost of groceries. Here we have before us a piece of legislation that quite patently works in the opposite direction—that is putting prices up. Has he managed to deal with economics 101, because that excise actually pushes up inflation? This is an inflationary piece of legislation. It just beggars belief that at this time after a budget and after all the chest beating about dealing with inflation, here we are dealing with an inflationary piece of legislation.

Do senators remember the Prime Minister’s promises about putting down grocery prices and putting down the prices of diesel and petrol? Raising diesel taxes is going to put upward pressure on inflation. I am not really sure exactly where the Prime Minister is on this but perhaps someone should give him a quick ring and remind him of what is happening in the Senate today.

Worse still, truck drivers and consumers across Australia will be hit with higher costs and no guarantee that the tax rise will mean a single metre of asphalt on Australian roads. There is a thing called a hypothecated tax. I had to rush over to Senator Colbeck a little while ago to bring that word to mind. It is effectively a tax that is taken off people and is hypothecated directly to something. But there is no guarantee of that in this matter. The money is going to go straight to state Labor governments and, given their very poor track record in project managing just about anything, there is no way they are actually going to improve transport infrastructure with the extra money. So here we have again Robin Rudd stealing from Australians and giving to the states and territories. We are seeing it time and time again. They have only been here six months. He is certainly the busiest robber we have had here for a while.

The fuel tax pay-off to the Labor states and territories will rise, and this is a very important number; this is just startling. The fuel tax pay-off will rise from $1.146 billion in 2007-08 to $1.226 billion in 2010-11—an increase of $80 million. So we steal from the truckies and we give it to our Labor mates. I do not understand what that is about. Every single Australian, when they hear this, should be deeply ashamed of being involved in anything that takes from truck drivers and gives to state and territory governments. All in all, increasing diesel excise will hurt struggling Australian truckies. It is going to put the pinch on Australian families when they go to the shops and it is going to put upward pressure on inflation. It will do all of these things without providing any guarantees that Australia’s highways will see a single cent of this. For all of these reasons, I ask the chamber to support me in disallowing this regulation.