Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Can I briefly respond to Senator Xenophon. About 10 per cent of the cars that are impacted by the luxury car tax are in fact Australian made. The car manufacturers will tell you that their profitability starts cutting in only with higher priced vehicles. Possibly Senator Xenophon has superior knowledge to the three Australian car manufacturers, but they are all opposed to this luxury car tax. For one reason: the damage it will do to the Australian automotive industry. If somehow this tax was going to benefit them, as was half hinted at by Senator Xenophon, one wonders why they would have spent so much time lobbying against it. If it was going to give them a break, if it was going to assist them, why have they been lobbying against it? The only reason they have been lobbying against it is that they know of the damage it will do to the automotive sector in this country.

Senators Xenophon and Fielding—love ‘em both dearly—have unfortunately got themselves into difficulties making a deal with the government that is unsustainable under questioning. That is their difficulty. They have not only voted—and this is where the double whammy comes in—for an eight per cent increase for Australian made vehicles over $57,180 and up to $75,000, or more in fact, but they have also voted, in comparative terms, for a 33 per cent tax decrease on 25 imported models. And when you put the jacked-up price of the Australian made car next to the 33 per cent reduced price of the imported motor vehicle, the price differential becomes very, very stark, and that is what my great concern is in relation to this.

The fact that we have not heard from the AMWU is not surprising. Senator Cameron came in here supporting this because he thought air conditioning was a luxury. He is living in another world. You sort of wonder whether union officials—I hope I do not do him any disservice—like Senator George Campbell before him and Senator Doug Cameron, towards the end of their union careers, are more interested in gaining Labor Party preselection to get into this place than looking after the interests of the workers. I trust that the gentleman to whom Senator Xenophon refers does not fall into the Campbell-Cameron mould and I will once again accept that at face value if Senator Xenophon were to give me a nod in that regard.

I say very seriously to my friend Senator Fielding that some very serious questions have been asked and I believe that the Senate is entitled to an answer as to whether any understanding has been reached between him and the government in relation to what the regulations might contain and whether or not he engaged in any discussions with the government about safer vehicles being exempted from this tax impost, and whether the government advised him as to what the cost to revenue will be.