From today, every motorist in the region will pay more for petrol because of Tony Abbott's new $2.2 billion petrol tax.
Despite promising no new or increased taxesbefore the last election, and having his petrol tax budget measure shot down by the Senate earlier this year, Tony Abbott has bypassed Parliament to ensure thousands of locals will pay more for their petrol.
The indexation of the petrol tax to CPI by the Abbott Government means Australians will pay around$19 billion morefor petrol over the next decade.
Sharon Bird says within the next five years, the average motorist will bepaying an extra $135for petrol every single year because of this new tax from Tony Abbott.
Australians in regional areas like the Illawarra and those running small businesses will be particularly hard hit by Tony Abbotts increasing petrol tax, said Ms Bird.
Local families are already struggling to make ends meet with the cost of living because of this Governments unfair budget the last thing they need is to pay more tax every time they fill up the car.
This is a sneaky move by the Abbott Government, trying to get through the back door what they couldnt get through the front, said Stephen Jones.
The regressive nature of this tax will hit all Australians hard, but none more so than in regional areas like the Illawarra and Southern Highlands, where we dont have the luxury of walking to work or jumping on the train or bus.
The majority of local residents depend on their own cars to get around, with about 9,000 people having to drive outside of the Illawarra for work every single day.
Research from The Australia Institute shows that the poorest 20 per cent of households spend about three times the proportion of their income on fuel (4.45 per cent) than do those in the richest 20 per cent (1.37 per cent).
No amount of spin from the Abbott Government will change the impact of this increasing tax on the cost of living not even the Treasurer suggestion that poor people dont drive cars -
The poorest people either dont have cars or actually dont drive very far in many cases. But, they are opposing what is meant to be, according to the Treasury, a progressive tax.
TREASURER JOE HOCKEY ABC LOCAL RADIO BRISBANE 13 AUGUST 2014
Tony Abbott promised that -
Taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.
TONY ABBOTT PRESS CONFERENCE 6 AUGUST 2013
From today, every local motorist will pay for Tony Abbott's broken promise from their own pocket.
