Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I welcome the presentation of the Bill to the House and my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Bill is an important policy initiative that clearly shows the presence of the Green Party in government. Consequently, the welcome given by other Senators is to be acknowledged.

It is clear the previous system of motor tax was grossly inequitable and did not take into account environmental factors. The Bill is a method to address the imbalance and to overcome many of the anomalies that will occur, as of necessity, when a new system replaces an old one. The concept of retrospection is notoriously difficult in any legislation, particularly so in respect of taxation. A cut-off point must be applied at some time. The Minister responded to the debate in the Lower House by adjusting the cut-off point for cars bought from 1 January onwards, an important concession. If Senators are speaking of people who bought environmentally friendly vehicles before then in the full knowledge that no incentive existed and that, in doing so, they were assisting the environmental health of the country, then the concept of retrospection could be also applied to people who bought environmentally unfriendly vehicles knowingly in that they could be asked to pay more tax for the damage they caused. This might be an especially difficult suggestion for Fine Gael, which seems to have in its possession——