Labor transport ministers have pushed up grocery prices and put further pressure on inflation by agreeing to hike truck charges,
Labor transport ministers have pushed up grocery prices and put further pressure on inflation by agreeing to hike truck charges, the federal Opposition says.
Shadow Transport Minister Warren Truss has hit out at the decision on Friday to accept National Transport Commission (NTC) proposals which will see the fuel excise rise 1.37 cents and push up registration charges for some multi-combination vehicles.
“It has only taken the Rudd Government one hundred days to initiate its first round of tax rises,” Truss says.
“It is also a tax slug that is only possible because for the first time every transport minister in Australia is Labor. So now we know what ending the blame game means — federal and state Labor ministers won’t blame each other for increasing taxes.”
“The decision also exposes the fraud of Labor’s claims to be fighting inflation.”
Truss has also attacked the decision to index the fuel charge, an approach first introduced by the Keating Labour Government but abandoned by the Coalition in 2001.
“This should send an ominous warning to the Australian motorist,” he says.
Consumers will end up paying for the extra charges, he says.
“For a number of years, the Coalition was able to hold off the states and territories from increasing heavy vehicle registration charges. Now we have wall-to-wall Labor governments there apparently is no protection for Australia’s hard-working trucking and bus industries, or indeed the struggling farmers and cash-strapped mums and dads who will have to pay more as the increases flow through to them,” he says.
“Labor stands condemned for driving up inflation and betraying the trust placed in them at the election. What’s next, a cosy deal to increase the GST?”
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