Heavy Vehicles

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister advise the house why heavy vehicle registration fees for prime movers have increased more than 15 per cent while for dollies the registration fees have nearly doubled, as gazetted last week, and how these increases will possibly help the economy?

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: You've got three minutes. Bring it home.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Sport is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:02): I thank the member for Flinders for his question on this. As most members would be aware, in recent years we have been moving towards a national framework of regulation for the heavy vehicle industry. Certainly, the first stage of that occurred some time ago with the establishment of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. Amongst its first tasks was to take over the task from state and local road agencies of issuing permits for particular types of vehicles.

Further tranches of the national heavy vehicle reform are to take over more regulatory responsibilities, eventually including the registration of heavy vehicles. But of course until we get to that stage, it is still up to state agencies to register heavy vehicles. One of the things that I have spoken to this house about before, and the Premier gave a speech to the National Press Club in November last year, is reforming our way of raising revenue from the heavy vehicle industry.

Unlike some people, or indeed just one person who has recently left the chamber, I don't favour tolls being imposed on the heavy vehicle industry. I favour a much more equitable and transparent regime for raising revenue from the heavy vehicle sector. That's where registration fees and the fuel excise which is currently levied on the heavy vehicle industry would be replaced with a road pricing charge, and that is work that has been underway in South Australia. It has been a great frustration to me that the National Transport Commission has taken on this task in years gone by—in fact, I think going back to 2006—and, despite this being strongly desired by road agencies around the country, has been unable to crack the nut of providing an effective, transparent, nationwide road pricing regime. However, as both the Premier and I have said publicly in this chamber, it is a task which we think is sufficiently important for us to bite this reform off.

We have started conducting road pricing trials here in South Australia, in fact, on two different routes: one route on the Dukes Highway from the South Australian-Victorian border down to the old tollgate at the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway, and another route along Port Wakefield Road to the container terminal at Outer Harbor. We are looking at what the cost requirements are for the upgrade of those roads and assessing that against the state-based registration and federal-based fuel excise charges raised from those roads.

In relation to the member for Flinders' question, there have been some changes when it comes to heavy vehicle registration costs. My understanding is that they are related to the transition of those regulatory requirements from the state to the federal government, but I will take on notice the detail that he raised and come back to the chamber with an answer.