Greens MPs

In excellent news this morning, The Age reports that Christine Milne's amendments to the Luxury Car Tax, exempting fuel efficient vehicles from the levy, are already having an impact!

Ian Porter writes:

"THE changes made to luxury car tax have already started to influence the design of premium cars, with Audi announcing plans to install smaller diesel engines in some of its models so they consume less than seven litres per 100 kilometres - and become exempt from the tax."

Audi Chief Joerg Hofmann is quoted as saying:

Although the introduction of the Special Disability Trust (SDT) in September 2006 was welcomed by parents and carers of those living with disabilities, it has not been as widely taken up as expected, during questioning in Senate Estimates it was revealed that only 22 trusts have been established Australia wide to date.

I'm aware through constituents contacting the office that many people are not happy with various aspects of the current SDT legislation and that significant barriers are preventing Trusts being established.

Christine was interviewed by Steve Chase for ABC News Radio this morning about dropping unnecessary and inequitable tax cuts and using some of the funds for major emissions reductions work such as the Greens' EASI scheme.

You can stream the interview here.

I read Paul Murrays' column in the West Australian Like it or not, we are a greedy lot at poll time (Aug 23rd) with interest, and was pleased to see that Paul is in agreement with the Greens (whether he would care to admit it or not) on this critical issue.

If the Prime Minister doesn't call the election this weekend, I will introduce a private members' bill when Parliament resumes next week requiring the total amount of taxpayers' money spent on government advertising to be included in every advertisement.

The aim of the bill is to name and shame governments who use taxpayers' money on blatantly political advertising. It will allow taxpayers to see exactly how much of their money is being spent by self-serving governments.