Tasmanians have reason to be heartened by the Prime Minister’s comments about Bass Strait freight and passenger vehicle subsidies in his response to my question to him in the Parliament today.
I asked the Prime Minister when would the Productivity Commission’s report into the subsidies be made public, when would the Government respond, and if he would commit to not reduce the subsidies regardless of the Commission’s recommendations.
The Prime Minister failed to address the detail required by the questions and this keeps the prospect alive of the subsidies being adjusted in some way, for instance by altering the freight subsidy or removing it altogether from passenger vehicles, both of which were discussed in the Productivity Commission’s draft report released earlier this year.
But on a positive note the Prime Minister re-affirmed the Government’s commitment to the subsidies, at least in general terms, in a clear rejection of the Federal Budget Audit Commission’s recommendation to abolish the Bass Strait subsidies in their entirety.
Andrew Wilkie MP, Independent Member for Denison
