Re: $4b transport plan to ease petrol heat

["Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au>]

Tezza <tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au> wrote in message
39f3d4d5$0$11635$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:39f3d4d5$0$11635$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
>
> "Anthony Morton"
> "Tezza"
> >
> > >>I beg your pardon! Car drivers *more* than pay their bloody way. Both
the
> NSW
> > >>and Federal governments collect far more in fuel taxes than is spent
on
> roads.
> >
> > Actually this is a fallacy.  According to the RACV (Victorian motor
lobby),
> > $8.6 billion in fuel excise was collected by Australian governments in
the
> > 1996/97 financial year.  And according to the Australian Local
Government
> > Association (a body of local council road engineers) the total amount
spent
> > on roads in the following year by all three levels of government -
federal,
> > state and local - was exactly the same: $8.6 billion.
>
>
> Yet the NRMA says differently, quite often, with no denial by any tier of
> government.
>
>
>
> > Anyway, even if petrol tax did provide extra revenue beyond that
required
> for
> > building and maintaining roads, there's no reason why governments
shouldn't
> > derive revenue from this source as much as any other.  Do you also
believe
> > that all gambling taxes should be spent on poker machines?
>
> Poker machines aren't owned by the government and provide no public
benefit. I
> think they should be outlawed.

No public benefit!  Of course they provide a public benefit, many people
play the pokies for fun and aren't addicted to gambling, they understand the
odds and their limits.  The same goes for a variety of illegal drugs.  The
catch comes in balancing use with abuse (hey we're back to cars again).

Prohibition is a dopey solution for a complex human problem, just look at
heroin.

Chris