Post by Chips on Jun 5, 2008 14:24:33 GMT 9.5
Tax switch is one explanation for higher diesel prices
Max Perry (Letters, June 4) blames the high price of diesel on our link to Singapore's price index and the demand in Asia. Perhaps. I remember when the price used to be half that of petrol. That was in the 1960s and '70s. The transport industry was quickly shifting from rail onto roads and the government realised the damage the big semis were doing to our roads.
In its wisdom it decided to greatly increase the registration fees for these monsters. There was an outcry and a blockade of highways by the irate drivers of big trucks. If my memory serves me right John Laws supported them and the government caved in.
However, its young, ambitious treasurer retreated to his plan B, which was to start increasing the tax on diesel slowly. Pretty soon the great guzzlers paid for the damage to the roads indirectly and are paying still - as we all are. The name of that treasurer was John Howard.
Stan Moc Stuarts Point
The high price of diesel fuel originated in the change from taxing heavy vehicles in registration charges to taxing them through a heavy vehicle tax incorporated in the fuel price. This followed the success of the truckers' blockade of the Razorback in the 1970s. Back then, trucks were the only road vehicles using diesel.
Proof that the price is not due to the cost of the fuel can be found in most European countries and New Zealand, where diesel is between 60 per cent and 75 per cent the price of super.
In those countries road maintenance costs are recovered through forms of taxation that do not penalise motorists for buying modern diesel cars, which in many cases are more fuel-efficient than hybrids.
Mike Rose San Francisco
Finally, someone has recognised the absurdity of cheap Tuesdays ("The slow-moving Tuesday shuffle for 'cheap' petrol, June 4). Besides the traffic congestion, safety and pollution problems caused by these queues, there is the issue of time. Half an hour sitting in an idling car to save four to five dollars? Do people really value their time at such a low rate?
If FuelWatch does put an end to this, I'm all for it.
Andrew Love Telopea
How much money or petrol do you save by waiting in a queue for half an hour with the motor running? Even if the motor is switched off and then started again 25 times to get to the bowser, this activity must have consumed all the imagined savings.
Josef Nagler Eagleby (Qld)
Max Perry (Letters, June 4) blames the high price of diesel on our link to Singapore's price index and the demand in Asia. Perhaps. I remember when the price used to be half that of petrol. That was in the 1960s and '70s. The transport industry was quickly shifting from rail onto roads and the government realised the damage the big semis were doing to our roads.
In its wisdom it decided to greatly increase the registration fees for these monsters. There was an outcry and a blockade of highways by the irate drivers of big trucks. If my memory serves me right John Laws supported them and the government caved in.
However, its young, ambitious treasurer retreated to his plan B, which was to start increasing the tax on diesel slowly. Pretty soon the great guzzlers paid for the damage to the roads indirectly and are paying still - as we all are. The name of that treasurer was John Howard.
Stan Moc Stuarts Point
The high price of diesel fuel originated in the change from taxing heavy vehicles in registration charges to taxing them through a heavy vehicle tax incorporated in the fuel price. This followed the success of the truckers' blockade of the Razorback in the 1970s. Back then, trucks were the only road vehicles using diesel.
Proof that the price is not due to the cost of the fuel can be found in most European countries and New Zealand, where diesel is between 60 per cent and 75 per cent the price of super.
In those countries road maintenance costs are recovered through forms of taxation that do not penalise motorists for buying modern diesel cars, which in many cases are more fuel-efficient than hybrids.
Mike Rose San Francisco
Finally, someone has recognised the absurdity of cheap Tuesdays ("The slow-moving Tuesday shuffle for 'cheap' petrol, June 4). Besides the traffic congestion, safety and pollution problems caused by these queues, there is the issue of time. Half an hour sitting in an idling car to save four to five dollars? Do people really value their time at such a low rate?
If FuelWatch does put an end to this, I'm all for it.
Andrew Love Telopea
How much money or petrol do you save by waiting in a queue for half an hour with the motor running? Even if the motor is switched off and then started again 25 times to get to the bowser, this activity must have consumed all the imagined savings.
Josef Nagler Eagleby (Qld)