🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4fr57l$cgu@preeda.internex.net.au>,
   maddison@connexus.apana.org.au (David Maddison) wrote:
>Followup-To: 
aus.archives,aus.aviation,aus.cars,aus.books,aus.computers,aus.culture.china,a
us.education,aus.electronics,aus.enviroment.misc,aus.foodtech,aus.games.bridge
,aus.gardens,aus.general,aus.invest,aus.legal,aus.motorcycles,aus.personals,au
s.radio.
>b
>References: 
>Organization: connexus.apana.org.au
>Distribution: 
>
>
>
>On Wed, 14 Feb 1996, gravityboy wrote:
>
>> : Regardless of this, by far the biggest predator on the consumer with
>> : regards to petrol prices is our beloved Government!
>> :
>> : Why doesn't anyone care that petrol prices at the pump are about 50%
>> : tax? (I don't have the _exact_ figures with me on hand. The data is
>> : available from the Australian Institute of Petroleum.)
>> :
>> : Aren't people aware of this fact, or what?
>>
>> Yes I am aware of this, and the money goes  to pay for roads etc.
>> Its about time people realise the government represents the people and if
>> its not representing you well thats your fault.
>>
>>
>>
>> peace and love
>>
>> chris
>
>Virtually none of that tax goes to roads. Most of it goes to consolidated
>revenue. If it did go to roads we wouldn't have so many dangerous ones
>and the road death toll would be lower.
>
>And _please_ don't tell me that Australia has relatively low petrol
>prices compared with "other countries". Mostly these comparisons are made
>with Europe which has about 30 times or more the population density we have,
>where people live in tiny high density apartment complexes and a 1 hour
>drive can take you across several countries. It is more appropriate to
>compare our petrol prices with the US or Canada, which are similar sized
>countries to Australia, and have petrol prices of about half or less. And
>they still have a higher population density than we have.
>
>
>David Maddison
>
>
Po[pulation density is irrelevant to the problem. What is relevant is the 
price of the raw material (crude), and it is cheaper here than most other 
nations because we supply most of our own, so very little in the way of 
imports. Canada and the US pay more for crude, but the petrol taxes are just 
about non-existent.

Dennis