Labor: two ticks out of four
Liberal-National Coalition: four ticks out of four
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has awarded the Labor Party two ticks out of four, and the Coalition four ticks out of four, in its 2013 election report card.
The ATA released the report card today. It assesses the parties against four criteria: their achievements in government, and their policies on the carbon tax, better roads and road access, and truck taxes and charges.
The Chairman of the ATA, David Simon, said the report card showed the Labor Party still planned to extend its carbon tax to the fuel used in trucks.
“The tax would start at about 1.6 cents per litre instead of the 6.858 cents per litre in Labor’s original plan. It would not stay at 1.6 cents per litre, though. Using Treasury figures from the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the ATA estimates the carbon tax would increase to 5.1 cents per litre by July 2016,” Mr Simon said.
“In contrast, the Liberal-National Coalition has confirmed it would abolish the carbon tax.
“Australia’s governments are looking at tracking and billing trucks by satellite. Under this plan, known as mass-distance-location pricing, every one of Australia’s 534,000 trucks would be fitted with a special GPS tracking device. Trucking operators would receive bills based on how far their trucks went, the roads they used and an assessment of their mass.
“In the lead up to the election campaign, the ATA called on the Labor Party and the Coalition to announce they would, if elected, halt the move to satellite based tracking and billing.
“The Labor Party did not respond to this call in its response to our election questionnaire. In contrast, the Coalition pledged that it would not move to a satellite based system without extensive industry consultation.
“The report card shows the Labor Party and the Coalition both have strong records of achievement in government and sound plans to build better roads and truck rest areas.
“I urge everyone in the trucking industry to consider the factual information in our report card as they decide how to vote on 7 September,” Mr Simon said.
