POPULAR WORDS

The ability to extend the diesel grants scheme beyond 2002 will be limited by the federal Budget position, federal Shadow Transport Minister, Martin Ferguson, says. Ferguson, who was speaking at the national Bus Industry Confederation (BIC) conference in Perth, says that while the Labor Party would like to roll back GST on public transport fares and extend the diesel grants to lighter vehicles such as urban buses, he can not honestly make that promise. Ferguson says that with today's new that the Howard government is scrambling to recoup several hundred million dollars in dividends out of Telstra, it is obvious that the federal Budget is stretched and will be in a desperate situation for the next couple of years. "So on that basis I can't give you a promise on the diesel rebate or any GST roll back – it would be dishonest to promise that," he says. However, Ferguson says that the Howard government's fuel inquiry should be used as a forum to debate the levels of fuel taxes and how they should be used, especially for environmental issues such as encouraging people onto public transport and using alternative energy sources.