General News
15 March, 2023
MP slams truckie tax hikes
MEMBER for Wannon Dan Tehan has slammed the federal government’s proposal to impose a per year increase on fuel taxes and registration charges on the nation’s truck drivers.
MEMBER for Wannon Dan Tehan has slammed the federal government’s proposal to impose a per year increase on fuel taxes and registration charges on the nation’s truck drivers.
Mr Tehan raised concerns the rise could cost the sector up to an additional $2.6 billion over three years and add to inflationary pressures.
He said the Albanese Government’s proposed increases to ‘truckie taxes’ would drive up cost-of-living pressures on local families and businesses, and accelerate closures for smaller transport enterprises.
“Everything we make or produce in this country from our farms to our factories and every good we buy gets to a shop and to the end consumer by travelling on a truck,” Mr Tehan said.
“At a time of high inflation and cost of living crisis impacting families across Wannon, why would the Labor Government want to excessively increase taxes on transport, which is an essential input to every product we buy.
Labor is currently proposing to increase heavy vehicle road user charges on fuel and truck registration costs by either six per cent per year or 10 per cent per year, for the next three years.
The proposed 10 per cent annual increase to the heavy vehicle road user charge would see the tax truckies pay on fuel jump from the current 27.2 cents per litre up to 36.2 cents per litre by July 1, 2025, according to the National Transport Commission.
In addition, under the proposal the states and territories would raise the road component of heavy vehicle registration charges by up to 10 per cent per year for three years.
“If Labor’s 10 per cent truckie tax is implemented, local trucking operators would be slugged extra tax to raise an additional $2.6 billion nationally over the initial three-year implementation period,” Mr Tehan said.
“By 2025-26 the nation’s truckies would be charged $1.35 billion more per year under Labor’s 10 per cent truckie tax, official documents show.
“This comes at a time when local trucking businesses are paying significantly more for fuel, wages, insurance and maintenance on trucks resulting from the shocking conditions of many roads,” Mr Tehan, said.
“The additional taxes proposed by Labor could send some trucking businesses to the wall.”
A spokesperson for the Livestock & Rural Transporters Association of Victoria (LRTAV) said the LRTAV categorically rejects the proposal to increase heavy vehicle charges by between six to 10 per cent in each of the next three years.
Mr Tehan said every single submission to the government’s consultation process has rejected the proposed increases in truckie taxes, from the Australian Trucking Association to the National Farmers’ Federation.
“The Coalition will stand by our truckies and press the Labor Government to scrap its plans to increase truckie taxes by up to 10 per cent,” he said.