Jacinda Ardern is not the only trying to pull a swifty over electric cars versus utes.
Notoriously, Ardern is trying to subsidise luxury EV cars for wealthy people at the expense of tradies and ordinary car-owners. Which is exactly what her dewy-eyed fans across the ditch at Australiaās ABC apparently want. And theyāll peddle the most outrageous porkies to try and get it.
Their ABCās Alan Kohler really should know better ā but then again, heās so misty-eyed about the fantasy of useless renewable energy, he actually might not.
Anyone whoās ever tried to engage a Greta Thunberg fan in a fact-based debate will know that, when it comes to renewable energy, hard fact runs a very distant second to wishful thinking that would make Pollyanna scoff.
On Sundayās prime-time ABC-TV news, there he was contrasting and explicitly attacking the governmentās apparent multi-billion dollar subsidies for gas-guzzling and (my words, his implication) planet-destroying utes and its refusal to provide any subsidies for (my words again, his implication again) planet-saving electric cars.
After running a clip of minister Angus Taylor rejecting any subsidies for luxury cars, Kohlerās closing comment was: ābut subsidies for diesel utes? No problemā.
This is the same line of argument you continually hear from the worshippers of ārenewablesā. Iāve only recently heard green zealots insist furiously that solar receives no subsidies in Australia (in fact, it receives billions every year) while asserting that the government āsubsidises coalā (it doesnāt).
Kohler is playing a shifty game of pea-and-shells. The government doesnāt āsubsidise diesel utesā: it provides business tax breaks for all commercial vehicles.
That basic characterisation was completely false. The government has not put in place a subsidy specifically for diesel utes or even utes and SUVs generally and specifically excluded electric cars.
If a business buys an electric ute it would get exactly the same āsubsidyā as a business ā and only a business ā gets in buying a diesel ute.
Hereās where it gets worse, though: the tax break isnāt a fixed amount, itās a percentage.
In fact it would get a bigger dollar āsubsidyā because an electric ute would cost more, much more, than its diesel equivalent.
Ah, but there arenāt any electric utes, although they are supposedly coming, very expensively[ā¦]
Buy a $70k Kona electric and you can get a $17,500 āKohler subsidyā if you are a 25 per cent small biz taxpayer.
Thatās double the $8750 āsubsidyā on buying the $35k petrol version.
So will businesses rush to buy luxury EVs, just to cash in on the bigger tax break?
Hmm, makes sense. Not. You get the bigger āsubsidyā but are still out of pocket a net $52.5k as opposed to $26.25k.
To make Kohlerās deception even worse, the tax break isnāt even specifically for vehicles (petrol, diesel or electric): itās for all capital items.
None of this is a subsidy; itās just the bring-forward of an everyday tax deduction for business on all purchases of capital items, not just diesel utes or SUVs, diesel, petrol or electric.
You also get it for office machines, furniture, computers, telephones, any plant and equipment thatās tax-deductible depreciable.
You, simply, get to write any of these purchases off upfront at 100 per cent, instead of having to do it over four or five years. You donāt get to write off more, only quicker.
This was done deliberately by the government to boost the economy. Yes, it costs the budget bigtime right now ā nearly $50bn out to 2024-25 ā butās thatās exactly the point. Itās to boost business cash flows and to encourage them to spend.
Ultimately, what really seems to irk deep-green zealots like Kohler and Ardern is that people really, really like SUVs.
By far the great majority of SUVs bought ā and there are twice as many SUVs sold as utes and vans combined ā are by ordinary consumers who donāt get a tax write-off.
Itās not exactly a mystery why Ford and Holden went down and out. Just about everyone was answering the question: have you driven a Ford (and Holden) car lately, with a big no.
Exactly the same goes for Kohlerās electric cars. Given the ā equally subsidised or unsubsidised ā choice, tradies buy non-electric SUVs.
The Australian
Itās almost like they donāt care about climate change.
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