Senator Joyce said today at the Economics Committee Hearing into the Luxury Car Tax, “Evidence has been delivered to the Committee which suggests that, as the lower end of the market becomes the domain of cheap, imported cars from China and India, and the higher end of the market above $120,000 becomes the domain of imported European cars, the sector of the market affected by the Luxury Car Tax, that is cars over the value of $57,180, is the sector that Australian car manufacturers currently pursue and, as such, it must be dominated further if it is to survive into the future.

“Evidence was further given that the choice of motor vehicles is elastic below $120,000 and that means purchases are very responsive to price changes and consumers will swiftly change the vehicle they buy as a result or delay their purchase.

“So this means, by reason of this Labor government tax, we should look to encourage people, through the form of a government sponsored tax, to either delay their purchase of a new Australian vehicle or replace their purchase of an Australian vehicle with an imported cheaper vehicle.

“It appears oxymoronic that a Labor government that should wish to protect the Australian car manufacturing industry bring about a tax that actively discriminates against it and could possibly, in the process, help move Australian jobs overseas.

“Furthermore to this, it is the higher end of the car market in Australia that develops technology such as the cost savings delivered from E85 Ethanol to the Australian consumer’s fuel bill by the use of a cheaper alternate fuel product which will be delayed or put off by a further slug to the vehicles that would incorporate that technology.

“Unless we have a large number of E85 vehicles on the road there will not be a reason to have delivery of E85 fuel, with the huge savings to the annual family budget which will come from that move lost.

“Unless we develop the technology at the top end of the market it doesn’t flow down to the rest of the market.

“So this Labor government inspired tax is also a tax on ingenuity and, worse still, it is a tax specifically on Australian ingenuity.”

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