Carbon tax: taking the stand

The Government should not go ahead with its plan to extend the carbon tax to trucks from 1 July 2014, the ATA told the parliamentary committee that examined the Government’s carbon tax bills.

ATA Chief Executive Stuart St Clair and Government Relations Manager Bill McKinley gave evidence before the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Clean Energy Future Legislation on 26 September 2011.

The ATA’s submission to the committee said the trucking industry should be permanently exempt from the tax.

“The Australian Government has stated that carbon pricing will only affect around 500 polluters. But the planned changes to the fuel tax credits system will impose an effective carbon price on every one of Australia’s 47,000 trucking businesses,” the submission said.

“85 per cent of these businesses are small businesses with fewer than five employees. They are no different to the other small businesses that are permanently exempt from the carbon price, except they happen to operate trucks weighing more than 4.5 tonnes.”

Under the Bills, most business fuel users, including the rail and mining sectors, will be subject to the tax from 1 July 2012 through a reduction in their fuel tax credit rate.

The Government’s current legislation will exempt the trucking industry from the tax indefinitely, but the Government has announced it will introduce new legislation after the next election to impose the tax on the industry from 2014.

In the committee hearing, Stuart said it would be exceptionally difficult for small trucking businesses to pass on the tax.

“It has been proven over the last few years as fuel prices have fluctuated. We have found it is increasingly difficult, in the advice given to us by operators across Australia, being able to pass those costs on now. That is making it very difficult for those who operate not only in the cities but also in regional, rural and remote Australia to be able to claw back those costs,” Stuart said.

The ATA submission put forward five recommendations to improve the operation of the tax if it is extended to cover trucking.

As part of its lobbying efforts, the ATA has also released a detailed report about the environmental credentials of the trucking industry.

Photocredit: JJ Harrison, wikimedia commons.