Using regulation rather than legislation to implement the budget measure of twice-yearly fuel tax indexation, is an admission of defeat in a political argument it should have made a much better fist of. The punters will start paying from November 10, but the political bill in negotiating compromises in the Senate has been been put on the credit card. The hope is that in 12 months time when that regulation must be either endorsed by the Senate or struck down, the opposition and crossbenchers will baulk at stripping the cash out of the budget - expected to be about $167 million by then - simply to hand it back. Not to consumers mind you, who will have been paying it, but to the oil companies. Imagine Christine Milne and Bill Shorten demanding the return of millions of dollars to the coffers of Caltex and co. Politically, it is hard. The Greens party, which should have given the government the numbers, because the hike is consistent with its goal of promoting cleaner energy and making fossil fuels more expensive, went missing. In so doing it failed to extract other environmental gains such as protection of the Renewable Energy Target. Internally, Milnes critics say this was a missed opportunity for a double Greens win - both discouraging petrol consumption, and protecting the RET. Read more: smh.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/fuel-tax-hike-remains-politically-tricky-20141028-11cxrg.html#ixzz3HQoUraWR
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 10:04:42 +0000
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