Mr ANDREW —My question is addressed to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development. Can the minister inform the House how today's abolition of Labor's avgas tax will benefit regional and remote Australia?

Mr VAILE (Transport and Regional Development) —I thank the honourable member for Wakefield for his question. I am sure that there are a lot of aviation operators and consumers in his area who are going to benefit from today's announcement by our government—that is, that the unfair avgas tax has been abolished from today, 1 July. This is the first instalment of our government's commitment to taxation reform in Australia. This was an unfair tax—a tax which levied some $17 million at a rate of about 13c a litre. The people who will benefit the most from the abolition of this tax are the people in the bush, the general aviation operators in rural and remote Australia.

Mr Tanner —Their landing charges are going up.

Mr VAILE —They have been paying the tax on avgas, but rarely, if ever, using Airservices Australia's services that this tax was going to pay for. That is what the member for Melbourne is interjecting about. It is important to note that the people paying this tax were not necessarily using the services it was going to pay for. So we have abolished this tax and we are going to see a much fairer regime in its place. This means real savings for farmers in the electorate of the member for Wakefield. Abolishing the avgas tax will keep down the cost of using aircraft to spread fertilisers, spray crops and muster stock. It will mean savings of up to $10,000 per plane per year to rural and remote operators of air services. For every GA operator, it is 13c per litre off their annual avgas bill forever. It has been abolished and people should recognise this.

This decision has been welcomed by industry. I received a fax—and the Labor Party are good at quoting local constituents—interest ingly, from a company in the electorate of the member for Wakefield. It is from Loxton Engineering Works, which operates light aircraft and sells produce into regional South Australia. The fax said:

Minister, we recognise and applaud your work in eliminating the unfair Airservices avgas levy.

We operate a light aircraft in our agricultural manufacturing and sales business over much of rural Australia.

The fuel levy in the past has forced us to pay for services we did not use.

After 1 July 1998 we can select and pay only for the services we require.

Our appreciation to you and the Coalition Government.

That fax from Loxton Engineering Works in the Riverland is a sign of the understanding in rural and remote Australia of the commitment of the Howard-Fischer government to taxation reform that provides fairness to rural and remote Australia.