Mr BILLSON(1.18 p.m.) —In supporting the sentiment of this motion before the House by the member for Barton (Mr McClelland), I have to note that it fails to acknowledge that it was under Labor that a dramatic ageing of Australia's car fleet took place. In 1982, during the coalition term, the average age of passenger vehicles was eight years. By 1995, under Labor, it had increased to 10.6 years and, in the same year, there were almost five million cars of 11 years of age and over.

This steady increase in the age of motor vehicles has many effects. As the motion acknowledges, it retards our motor car manufacturers, components industry, wholesalers and dealers from the benefits of growing demand for cars and impacts negatively on our environment. The application of new vehicle and safety technologies is stifled.

In the years since 1983, the low point of sales was reached in 1987, when 451,829 new passenger vehicles were sold. I congratulate the member for Barton for raising this matter now.

However, simply tinkering around at the edges of the wholesale sales tax on motor vehicles is not the solution to the problems this motion raises. A reduction in the 45 per cent luxury car WST is unlikely to make any significant change in demand. A fall in the lower standard motor vehicle WST rate would still leave significant challenges unaddressed. The coalition government believes that real tax reform is needed, not just a tickle here and there.

When Labor was in power from 1983 to 1996, they made no effort to reduce wholesale sales tax rates. This year, with a coalition government, demand for new vehicles is increasing. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries predicts that 680,000 new vehicles will be sold during this calendar year. The more prudent management of the economy by the coalition is paying dividends. Low interest rates make substantial purchases like motor vehicles more affordable.

A broader range of measures is required to tackle the environmental and safety problems posed by older cars. Petrol companies are already marketing half-lead fuels. The government, car clubs and manufacturers have combined to publish information on vehicles that, while designed for leaded fuel, can run successfully on unleaded petrol. Bringing forward the date from which leaded petrol is no longer sold from the presently suggested year of 2010 may be one solution. However, with 35 per cent of fuel sold today being unleaded, substantial incentives would be required to bring forward the turnover of the nation's fleet much before the years 2008-09.

In Europe, some governments pay owners of cars greater than 10 years old an incentive to physically scrap their vehicles. However, in Australia the value of cars is far from zero at 10 years of age and all use unleaded fuel and are fitted with catalysts. Scrapping older vehicles is a blunt policy measure. Better environmental and safety outcomes can be achieved through improved fuel efficiency, vehicle maintenance, driver behaviour and traffic management.

The government's desire to develop an automotive industry code of environmental performance will also deliver better outcomes than simply tinkering with the wholesale sales tax on vehicles. The car industry has voluntarily agreed to reduce the national average fuel consumption of our cars to 8.2 litres per 100 kilometres by the year 2000. This com mitment outperforms the US corporate average fuel economy measure, which is aggregated across the full line of vehicles offered by an assembler, of 27.5 miles per gallon or 8.5 litres per 100 kilometres. Tax reform may make room for more efficient vehicles being taxed more lightly than cars with poor fuel economy performance, providing an incentive to purchase more environmentally friendly and lower power mass unit rated vehicles.

The motion before us today fails to mention the benefits from improved maintenance of motor vehicles. For instance, the Federal Office of Road Safety has suggested that simply tuning the entire car population would reduce hydrocarbon emissions by 10 times more than a legislative obligation that all new cars sold this year be of zero emission levels. Driver behaviour can reduce fuel consumption and accident rates. The motion fails to address the direct role of the Commonwealth in road funding and how we can do more to promote improved traffic management.

The Vaile inquiry into federal road funding has received submissions about the obvious deficiencies in the way Commonwealth moneys are distributed for roads. Beyond the national highway system, the Commonwealth should direct funding to projects of national economic and environmental significance. Projects such as the Scoresby corridor arterial right through to Frankston, widening the Princes Freeway between Melbourne and Geelong and completing the eastern ring-road would deliver enormous economic and environmental benefits and surely must be able to attract federal funds into the future.

Stop-start travel on haemorrhaging road networks is bad for business, bad for the air we breathe, bad for vehicle conditions, bad for road safety and bad for the broader environment. Bad by how much? Just check the differential between city and highway fuel consumption figures for a start. These are issues of concern to this government, and I call on this government to reflect this fact in its future federal road funding criteria.

Addressing the environmental and safety problems of ageing motor vehicles requires more than a tickle of wholesale sales taxes. If the member for Barton believes a WST tickle is helpful, he should seek to deal his Labor Party constructively and positively into a comprehensive tax reform debate. (Time expired)