Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor's hand-picked climate and energy tsar has now floated the idea of getting rid of the diesel fuel rebate to provide even more subsidies to the intermittent energy sector. This is a direct attack on Western Australia. It is a direct attack on the productive part of our economy. Let me be clear. I am asking: why? The diesel fuel rebate is not a subsidy. Excise taxes are meant to tax final consumption, not inputs to production. If you tax inputs to production, you double tax. You tax things twice. I will give a lesson to the Greens on this because they've been banging this drum for many years, and now it seems that the Labor Party is following the banging of those drums. Diesel fuel rebates are not a subsidy. They are not a subsidy.

Excise tax is also meant to fund road user charges, to fund the construction and upkeep of our roads. The rebate is paid for diesel that is used on farm or on mine sites. Notice to the Greens and the Labor Party: those are not gazetted roads. This is an input to the productive sector of our economy. It is vital to keep prices down on key commodities, right across our economy, including our food sector. Surely everyone in this place sees it is vitally important to keep the prices down. The diesel fuel rebate is a key part of the agricultural and mining economies and needs to stay.