Labor’s plan to pay $2000 for Australians to upgrade their old cars is just another lemon of an idea from Julia Gillard and Labor, LNP Candidate for Leichhardt Warren Entsch says.
Warren Entsch says the scheme encouraged motorists to take on debt they couldn’t afford, pushed up the price of old cars and did little for the environment.
“What this makes very clear is that Julia Gillard and Labor have learnt nothing from their disastrous pink batts policy,” he said.
“What this makes very clear is that Julia Gillard and Labor have learnt nothing from their disastrous pink batts policy,” he said.
Labor has announced a $2000 rebate to encourage people to get their "old, polluting cars" off the road, when they purchase a new, lower emission, fuel efficient vehicle.
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This is a program that has already been rejected by the Labor Industry Minister Kim Carr as being “extremely expensive” and as a Labor ‘green’ project it is sure to have unintended side effects and cause havoc for the industry.
“In Far North Queensland, and around the rest of the nation, there are businesses still waiting for the government to pay outstanding bills for the insulation scheme that had to be abandoned once people started dying and houses burnt to the ground," Warren Entsch says. "Now the Government is handing out more taxpayers money for another green farce."
“This scheme is nothing but a lemon — Kim Carr knew that last year but the Prime Minister is moving forward with this disaster anyway.”
A similar cash for old cars scheme in Germany has resulted in a surge in the number of new cars bought, followed by a big drop that resulted in job losses.
“The $400 million taxpayers are paying for this scheme will only cause motorists to upgrade their car today instead of tomorrow,” Entsch says. “In return the industry will suffer a huge hangover, when car sales that would have been spread over several years are squeezed into a short period.
“What I am very concerned about is how many people will be tempted to buy a new car when they can’t really afford it? This scheme will also force up the price of older vehicles, making it harder for teenagers to purchase their first car and putting the price of second-hand vehicles out of reach for families who are doing it tough," Warren Entsch says.
“This recycled policy idea is just a waste of $400 million and another green lemon from Labor.”
Households will be able to receive a $2,000 rebate towards a new vehicle by trading in their pre-1995 car for scrapping.
The rebate scheme is part of Labor’s plan to make "positive changes to how we live, work and travel."
According to Labor, from 1 January 2011 to the end of 2014, the Cleaner Car Rebate is expected to result in significant cuts in Australian fleet emissions as close to 200,000 pre-1995 vehicles are taken off the road and replaced with more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars.
The Rebate will be capped over its four years of operation at 200,000 vehicles.
Even publicity whore, hulk-lookalike and former James Cook University student president, Billy Colless, was there to get snapped with the lady first in line to the throne.