Petrol’s parliamentary pain
MENDOORAN farmer turned Liberal Democrats’ candidate Peter Rothwell says he’s disgusted with the nation’s parliamentary procedures and processes and believes it’s simply a rotten joke being played on the population.
He wants to see the fuel excise, a federal tax that earns billions of dollars a year, scrapped to give ordinary people and small businesses some financial relief but believes both major parties are only worried about how to best grandstand to win the next election.
“So much of the conversations I hear on the radio, reading the papers is coalition government members saying all sorts of things, Angus Taylor was quoted the other day saying the full $11 billion raised by fuel excise is spent on roads and that if we chip into that, our roads are going to suffer,” Mr Rothwell told Dubbo Photo News.
“Mark Coulton (Parkes MP) was on the radio and when he was pressed on it, he didn’t know, he couldn’t come up with an answer.”
Mr Rothwell says he’s very concerned that he can’t find enough up-to-date solid, factual data in the figures to determine precisely what per centage of the massive fuel excise slug is really and truly being spent on roads, which was the tax’s intended purpose when it was introduced.
He says it appears that only a small per centage of the excise makes it anywhere near our poor road infrastructure.
“It’s very hard to get any of these sort of figures, I’ve looked pretty hard – I can find figures from a 10-year period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and during that time these figures were quoting about one and a half billion dollars a year being spent on roads and that’s out of a fuel excise take which raised $9 – $10 billion so it’s not even close,” he said.
“We know for a fact that money goes into consolidated revenue so any comment saying the excise is all directly related to road funding is not true.
“The great point here is why can’t politicians have an honest discussion about it, get some truth out there and as a community we can make better decisions based on those real numbers.”
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to cut the 44.2 cent per litre fuel tax which the party says will stop a double taxation “whammy” of the excise with GST added on top.
Peter Rothwell says that during the height of the pandemic when fuel dropped below 90c per litre in many places, the double taxation of excise and GST saw government taxes make up over 50 per cent of the cost.
“Now fuel prices have skyrocketed and cost of living is spiralling out of control, we finally hear other parties joining our long-term criticism of the fuel excise tax”.
“Fuel plays an enormous role in our economy with nearly every small and large business affected. High fuel prices are a drain on incomes that flow all the way down the line to consumers,” he said.
The Liberal Democrats have labelled the fuel excise as particularly regressive because it punishes people living in regional areas who commute long distances every day. It’s also a disincentive for families to travel to the regions on the weekends as it’s simply too costly to fill up.
“Voters need a low-tax parliamentary voice to stop the money-hungry Lib-labgreens alliance from sucking consumers dry at the petrol pump,” Mr Rothwell declared.
“The complete and permanent elimination of fuel excise is just one way that a party that is truly committed to Less Government and More Freedom can work to reduce the cost of living for ordinary families.”
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