Cash for Clunkers “Pink Batts on Wheels” figures don’t compute
13/08/10
The Cash for Clunkers “Pink Batts on Wheels” scheme has been uncovered as a wasteful and ill-conceived idea that will blow out in costs if it is to achieve its aims.
Over the past weeks the Liberal Party has exposed just a few of the financial failures that would underpin the Cash for Clunkers scheme.
1. Labor has underestimated the cost of the scheme, which would more than double in cost to $800m;
2. The Departments and Treasury and Finance said the scheme was under costed;
3. Treasury and Finance have found that no allowance has been made for dealers who will be forced to scrap trade-ins rather than resell them. This could add another $200 million to the scheme;
4. Treasury says that 165,000 of the 200,000 cars will be purchased regardless of the scheme;
5. The subsidy to people who will buy cars regardless would cost at least $330 million on Labor’s shonky figures alone;
6. Only 35,000 vehicles will be directly bought as a result of the scheme Treasury and Finance have concluded;
7. On Labor’s shonky figures that means the scheme will deliver a subsidy of $11,000 per vehicle to get new cars on the road;
8. Industry Minister, Kim Carr, has said the Cash for Clunkers scheme would cost $1 billion.
Not one Labor minister has disputed the facts presented by the Liberal Party and Julia Gillard refused to discuss the Cash for Clunkers scheme on radio.
Further, Industry Minister Kim Carr, in an opinion piece in The Australian on August 11 2010, did not address, let alone rebut the facts outlined above.
This is a wasteful and ill-conceived scheme that is open to rorting and will blow out in cost to at least $1 billion, as indicated by Kim Carr – that is, if it is ever delivered.
Once again we are seeing Labor saying and promising anything to scrape back into office. In this case a shonky scheme designed to prove its so-called green credentials.
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