Federal Labor’s proposal to impose a 10 per cent increase in fuel taxes and registration charges on the nation’s truckies would cost the sector an additional $2.6 billion over three years and add to inflationary pressures.
Federal Member for Flynn, Colin Boyce said the Government’s proposed increases to ‘truckie taxes’ would drive up cost-of-living pressures on families and businesses and accelerate closures for small and family operated transport enterprises.
“Everything we make in this country and every good we buy gets to a shop by travelling on a truck, whether it originates on a farm, from a factory, or enters the country via a port,” Mr Boyce said.
“At a time of high inflation and cost of living crisis impacting Australian families, why would the Labor Government want to excessively increase taxes on transport which is such an essential input to every product we buy?
“That takes a special kind of economic recklessness.
Submissions have this week closed on a consultation approved by Federal Transport Minister, Catherine King, proposing to increase heavy vehicle road user charges on fuel and heavy vehicle registration costs by up to 10 per cent per year for the next three years.
The proposed increases to the heavy vehicle road user charge would see the tax on heavy vehicle fuel use increase from the current 27.2 cents per litre up to 36.2 cents per litre by 1 July 2025. In addition, 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 Minister King’s 10 per cent ‘truckie tax’ is implemented, the nation’s truckies would be slugged an additional $2.6 billion over the initial three-year implementation period, according to figures released by the National Transport Commission,” Mr Boyce said.
“By 2025-26 our truckies would be paying $1.35 billion more per year under Labor’s 10 per cent truckie tax, official documents show.
“The Labor Government needs to consider the flow-on impacts to the economy of the proposal and listen to the universal feedback from the sector.
“The Coalition stands by our truckies, and I call on the Government to scrap its plans to increase truckie taxes by up to 10 per cent.”
