Mr TRUSS (2:49 PM) —My question is to the Treasurer. Why should a businessman in Sydney pay less tax on an X-type Jaguar sports than a fencer in Broken Hill pays on the Toyota LandCruiser that he drives across distant paddocks and on dirt roads?

Mr SWAN (Treasurer) —I am delighted that the member has asked me that question. He asked me a similar question yesterday. It relates to the luxury car tax, which those opposite tried to defeat in the Senate, tried to vandalise the budget surplus in the Senate, only a few days ago. We got a lot of common sense out of the minor parties in the Senate and they voted for a revised proposal. What occurred in the House later on yesterday was—I think it was suggested by one of the members of the National Party up there—that, when I said that the Liberal and National parties had introduced this luxury car tax, he got up and said they had not. In fact, they did. The member for Higgins introduced the new luxury car tax in 2001.

Opposition members—No, he didn’t.

Mr SWAN —Yes, he did. He introduced the new luxury car tax in this House in 2001. We put a proposal to increase the luxury car tax from 25 per cent to 33 per cent in the budget so that there would be a small saving from people who bought luxury cars to assist us in the savings process of building a very significant budget surplus. As a consequence of the vandalism of those opposite in the Senate and their inability to be reasonable in the passage of those budget measures, we agreed to some changes with the minor parties in the Senate.

The member opposite pretends to represent rural people, when he knows that most four-wheel drives are completely unaffected by this increase in the tax. Things like farm utes are not affected at all. But some fuel-efficient vehicles that are luxury cars were exempted as a result of amendments carried in the Senate. The consequence of those amendments is as the member has indicated. But the fact that those amendments occurred is the fault of the Liberal and National parties in this House. They put the interests of Porsche drivers ahead of the interests of average working families and people living in regional areas. It is as simple as that.