Industry group seeks repeal of road and shipping Acts and canning of ATC and RSRT
The Australian Logistics Council has offered the Federal Government six main recommendations in the lead-up to the Federal Budget.
Three tackle financial items while the rest involve the abolition of laws or public bodies.
The six points, most of which have already been flagged, are:
- Funding should be provided for the preparation of both a taxation reform white paper and a federalism white paper and should be sufficiently wide to consider how a National Road Transport Agreement along the lines proposed in Recommendation 68 of the Henry Review of Taxation could be implemented
- The Government should appropriate funds so as to recompense the capital costs of industry operators providing services at places where goods are imported or exported obliged to make capital expenditures to permit compliance with changes in the law made for revenue purposes (such as changes in the GST threshold for imported goods) or international obligations entered into by the Government
- The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal Act 2012 be repealed and the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal abolished
- The National Transport Commission be abolished
- That the Commonwealth appropriate, over the forward estimates period, revenue so as to permit the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to develop computer systems to support a national scheme of heavy vehicle registration thus allowing the Regulator to self-fund
- The Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act 2012 be abolished.
The ALC is particularly exercised by the prospect of its members having to collect GST being charged on imported goods worth less than $100 and storage while payment is awaited. It points out that compliance costs here would come at a time when the supply chain is also expected to pay for safety and security equipment.
On road funding, in common with other industry bodies, the ALC wants the industry tax take invested in infrastructure rather than diverted to consolidated revenue.