Watch ad – Warning: content may offend some viewers

Community advocacy organisation Getup looks set to make some waves with an irreverent TV ad.

The parody advertisement targets the Government’s Fuelwatch proposal, and contains repeated bleeped expletives.

It depicts FuelWatch Headquarters filled with civil servants manning high-tech binoculars and reporting on tomorrow’s petrol prices today.

Getup emailed the ad around Australia on Thursday morning, asking for donations online and by close of business had close to the $50,000 needed to buy a television spot.

“The spoof humorously demonstrates how the Government knows exactly where fuel prices are going – through the roof. If Mr. Rudd and Dr. Nelson are truly committed to helping average Australians, they should look beyond the bowser wowsers and their short-term petrol populism, towards long-term transport solutions,” GetUp campaigns coordinator Ed Coper says.

“FuelWatch, or tinkering with the excise, is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic when Australia needs to invest billions towards better public transport and mandatory fuel efficiency standards.”

“The ad cuts right though the oil slick onto the larger problem at hand — petrol prices will keep going up regardless of what our Government does. So let us take this opportunity to invest in real solutions that address both the transport and the climate crises,” Mr Coper says.

GetUp is a not-for-profit and receives no money from any political party or the government.

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Sydneysiders are leading the push away from cars, with a 6 per cent increase in public transport use over the past year and a corresponding 6 per cent decrease in drivers.

But problems with the reliability and safety of public transport are still stopping other drivers who want to switch from leaving the car at home. Nationally three in five commuters drive to get to work or school, while one in five use public transport. Only one in 10 ride a bike or walk to work.

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Research, to be released today, shows Sydney commuters are the highest users of public transport nationally, with 26 per cent catching the train or a bus to work or school.

Battered by soaring petrol prices and peak-hour congestion, only 57 per cent of commuters now drive to work - the lowest proportion of any capital city.

But even so more than one-third of Sydney commuters (35 per cent) refuse to use public transport because it takes too long, almost four in 10 say it is unreliable (38 per cent) and one-quarter (25 per cent) say it is not available where they live, work or go to school.

About 7 per cent of Sydney commuters say they are worried about their safety on public transport.

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In Melbourne, only one in five braves the stretched public transport system, according to the survey by insurer AAMI.

But more than two-thirds of them said they would be happy to use public transport if services were more reliable, more frequent, and safer.

In Darwin, nearly 75 per cent of Darwin commuters drive to and from work or school - with the lack of availability and reliability cited as key reasons for not using public transport.

AAMI corporate affairs manager Mike Sopinski said high fuel prices, consecutive interest rate rises and sinking consumer confidence were contributing to a rethink in how people travelled in our cities.

He said there was also a growing concern for the environment among commuters.

“Forcing people’s hands are fuel prices and the availability of fuel so governments will need to plan for that,” he said.

“Over the next two to three years the use of motor vehicles will change and their attitude to daily commuting will change.

“Reports say the price of petrol is heading towards $2 a litre by the end of the year. This will force people into car pooling and into lighter vehicles.” Click here for more news on the petrol crisis.

Prestige car companies have applauded the move by Federal Parliament to put the proposed Luxury Car Tax changes before a Senate Committee.

The decision, made in Parliament this week, effectively stalls proposed move to raise the tax to 33 per cent from July 1.

The committee will investigate the proposed changes to the tax and their effect, including:

• Effect on vehicle price, affordability, cost of living and Consumer Price Index
• Effect of the tax and proposed increase on the adoption of vehicle safety features and environmental technologies; and
• expected impact on vehicle demand and likely consequences for government revenues from GST and stamp duty;
• indexing of the LCT threshold (currently $57,123);
• rationale for taxing ‘luxury’ cars at a higher rate than other goods and services;
• effect on Australian motor industry
• overall taxation burden on ownership and operation of motor vehicles including customs duty, GST, LCT stamp duty and excise on fuel
• extent to which the LCT is viewed as a non-tariff barrier by other car exporting countries.

It was suggested that the committee should hold hearings to hear evidence from Australia’s vehicle manufacturers, importers and distributors as well as industry bodies and tourism organisations.

“The opportunity to present what we believe are very compelling arguments against an increase in this non-tariff barrier is welcome,” Mercedes-Benz managing director Horst von Sanden says.

“Several aspects need to be investigated closely and carefully.

“There is the issue of the threshold at which the tax is applied, and the fact that many everyday family vehicles are being taxed, plus our concern for the livelihood of the 2000 Australian workers who directly depend on Mercedes-Benz for their income.

“There is also the separate issue of the damage to the environment by making these low-emission vehicles more expensive.

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“The adverse consequences that the Senate Economics Committee will inquire into — such as the threshold, the rationale for taxing luxury cars and no other luxury goods, the taxation burden on ownership and operation of vehicles (10 per cent import import duty, 10 per cent GST, LCT at a proposed rate of 33 per cent and the excise on fuel) — all of these together represent an inequitable and unfair burden on the working family who desire low emissions, low fuel economy and five-star safety.”

Audi spokesperson Anna Burgdorf says the company is “extremely pleased” with Parliament’s decision.

“The tax as it was makes Australia uncompetitive and really is a tax on innovation and on safety,” she says.

“We hope that the senate inquiry will show the government that the laws on LCT should be altered dramatically, or abolished altogether.”