Fri, 16th May 2008

You can fly but you can't hide from Labor's new taxes

The Hon Warren Truss MP
Leader of The Nationals
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Local Government

Labor’s new slug on international travellers has a hole of up to $12 million which passengers, airlines or travel agents are going to be forced to plug.

The Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Transport Minister, Warren Truss, said Labor appears to have made a major blunder by hitting pre-sold airline tickets with the inflationary Budget increase in the Passenger Movement Charge from $38 to $47.

Any tickets for post July 1 travel that have already been bought will be invoiced by Customs for the charge at $47, even if the tickets had been paid for weeks or months before the Budget announcement on May 13.

“This $9 per ticket is going to have to be paid by someone – either passengers who will be thumped with another increased Labor tax as they try to board a plane, or travel agents or airlines who will just have to wear the cost,” Mr Truss said. “Trying to extract an extra $9 from each passenger at the airport would be a logistical nightmare.

“It is impossible to accurately count the full cost but based on past travel patterns it could amount to as much as $12 million.

“Labor spent six months working up this Budget and presumably 11 years in Opposition thinking about it, yet it is riddled with errors and makes basic blunders like this one.

“I urge the Government to think again and approach this problem it created in a spirit of goodwill and good sense. Labor should also stop slugging Australians with more and more taxes,” Mr Truss said.