Australian Government gas bags back gas over green hybrids

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 08 July 2008 15:20

Opinion and Analysis

So there you have it. If want a hybrid car, a stepping stone to the future of plug in hybrids and fully electric vehicles, our green Government will give you $50. If you want to convert your car from one fossil fuel to another, the Government will give you $2000.

But hang on a minute didn't Prime Minister Rudd say the Government would spend $500 million to subsidise the production of hybrid cars in Australia by 2011? An admirable goal perhaps, provided they're plug-ins, but this is 2008 and consumers want hybrid cars right now.

So here's an idea Mr Rudd - take the $2000 you currently provide to drivers who convert to LPG and give it to drivers who buy hybrids. Take the $50 you currently provide to hybrid buyers and give it to the LPG converters.

Of course this probably won't happen because any Government that would kill off subsidies to a growing local solar panel industry isn't very smart and certainly isn't green. So why should we expect things to different when it comes to personal transportation?