The Greens’ hypocritical backflip over the Budget’s re-indexation of fuel excise, which saw the party shift its official position from supporting the measure to opposing it unless the funds were spent on public transport, has come back to bite, with Greens members reportedly in revolt. From The Canberra Times:
NSW senator Lee Rhiannon is pushing to overturn the stance amid what one Greens member called ”despair” across the green base…
Greens inside the party room and in the broader movement conceded that the main reason for opposing the [excise] increase was ”political”…
A senior Greens source called it politics over policy.
”They just can’t come at giving Tony Abbott a win, even where it is consistent with our own policy,” the exasperated member complained…
Greens senators have received ”stacks” of emails from disappointed constituents over the reversal, as well as official correspondence from at least one state branch protesting against the decision.
The Greens members’ despair is understandable, given the party are vocal champions for an emissions trading scheme and/or a carbon tax, as well as reducing Australia’s dependence on fossil fuels. Fuel excise is a defacto pollution tax, and opposing re-indexation whilst lamenting climate change is totally incoherent.
There are also sound budgetary reasons to raise fuel excise, including broadening the tax base away from income tax and improving overall taxation efficiency, in addition to the obvious environmental benefits. It would also go some way to closing the $5 billion Budget hole left by the Howard Government when it erroneously froze fuel excise indexation in 2001.
While the Greens might disagree that the proceeds from re-indexation are to be hypothecated back into to road funding, the truth of the matter is that this is more likely to be merely a budgetary accounting trick designed to make re-indexation more politically saleable to the public. Actual investment in roads is unlikely to increase much due to re-indexation. More likely, the source of the funding would simply be transferred out of consolidated revenue an onto fuel excise, freeing up consolidated revenue to fund other Commonwealth programs.
With regards to fuel excise, the Greens’ leadership has clearly placed politics ahead of sensible reform, and deserve to feel the wrath of their members.
