Last year the big push was converting cars from petrol to natural gas. The government was offering a two thousand dollar incentive - and the conversion industry was so overwhelmed that it refused to accept new bookings.
How things change ! That industry is now working month to month with just a steady stream of new customers. There are a number of reasons why car owners are having second thoughts.
Some see liquid gas as a bigger explosive danger than petrol. Some dislike losing boot space to accommodate that gas cylinder. Some are wary because gas outlets in country areas are not expanding at the same speed as the conversion industry - and some simply do not trust government not to claw back the savings when gas powered car numbers rise !
They have a point. Petrol prices are rising fast with the Christmas holiday traffic surge ahead - and gas prices are keeping pace. The difference is that petrol is supposedly priced in tandem with the Mayasian benchmark - and Australia has local supplies of natural gas measured in availability for centuries to come.
There is an old saying that nothing is certain - except death and taxes.
One certainty is that governments never relent on extracting the maximum tax possible from all and every avenue of opportunity.
On that basis, once the level of gas powered cars - or cars using ethanol - decrease the tax now obtained from petrol - the tax mix will immediately change to deliver precisely the same return to government coffers.
The only question remaining is just what new form taxation will take when hybrid cars travel more miles on electricity than they do on petrol - ethanol - or gas !
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