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It rears up impatiently with a growl. Chrome and steel fill the rearview mirror as it gets menacingly close before pulling out into the right-hand lane and overtaking. It's a relief to see it gone but only a couple of minutes elapse before another takes its place.
No matter I'm doing the speed limit; these monsters are in a hurry and in no mood to let a small sedan slow their progress. The routine continues for 100 kilometres or so before I take the exit off the Hume Highway. Almost instantly, the breathing slows, along with the heartbeat.
When it comes to highways and byways, I'll take the slow road any day, especially if it means getting off the Hume, the artery that connects Sydney with Melbourne. What are a few extra hours if it means avoiding semi-trailers breathing down my neck?
How times have changed.
Before the Hume was duplicated, it was cars being held up by trucks, sometimes tempting motorists to take terrible risks and overtake when it was not safe. Now, with the dual carriageway the trucks seem to do most of the overtaking - except, of course, when long, steep hills slow them down.
And there are more of them. Many more.
The proportion of non-bulk freight carried by rail between Sydney and Melbourne has dropped from 40 per cent in the 1970s to just 2 per cent. These days, an estimated 700,000 B-doubles make return trips between Sydney and Melbourne each year. That's almost 2000 a day.
That's a lot of freight, diesel and emissions - a point not missed by the Grattan Institute policy think tank. It's called for a halving of the fuel tax credit scheme for heavy vehicles, a move it says will save the budget some $4 billion a year and help Australia meets its emissions targets.
Immediately, at least three juggernauts appeared in the institute's rearview. You could almost hear the compression braking as the Transport Workers Union, National Farmers Federation and Australian Trucking Association formed up in convoy to run the suggestion off the road.
The union fears drivers would be put at risk as operators sought to cut costs. Farmers fear the effect of such a move on regional and rural Australia. And the truckers fear their industry would be decimated.
But that subsidy does warrant a closer look. Unless we operate vehicles entirely off-road - on the farm or at the mine - we all pay a fuel tax of 47.7c a litre. It's meant to fund our roads and their upkeep. Here's the rub, though. Vehicles over 4.5 tonnes pay a reduced rate and get a 20.5c per litre credit. Meanwhile, you and I in our little sedans, utes, hatchbacks and on motorcycles pay the full quid, even though our vehicles don't carve up the roads like B-doubles.
There's no easy fix, however. While there might be scope to encourage freight back on to the rail corridor between Melbourne and Sydney, rural and regional areas that don't have the benefit of established rail networks would end up paying higher transport costs.
The inland rail between Brisbane and Melbourne through regional NSW and Victoria might help when it's completed, as long it offers connections to other regional centres not on the route and as long as it's actually used by freight companies.
The under-used Sydney-Melbourne route - and the outcry over the mere suggestion of cutting heavy vehicle fuel subsidies - indicates there's a fight ahead before we see fewer trucks on our highways.
So, for me, the byways will be the preferred option for the foreseeable.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Should the heavy vehicle fuel tax subsidy be reduced? Would you pay a bit extra to see it happen? Are there too many trucks on our roads? Have we painted ourselves into a road transport corner by neglecting rail? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has announced she will quit the minor party and sit on the upper house crossbench after clashing with colleagues over her position on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The Victorian senator said Greens MPs, members and supporters had voiced support for the Voice, which was "at odds" with grassroots activists calling for Treaty before Voice.
- The slowest increase in prices in a year has stoked hopes inflation has peaked but this is not expected to deter a further interest rate rise today. Retail prices grew 1.1 per cent in the December quarter and the volumes of sales actually declined as rising living costs convinced households to pare back their spending, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- Australians living in regional and remote areas are likely to die nearly two decades earlier than their city counterparts, a new report has found. The report by the Royal Flying Doctor Service found rural Australians faced service gaps, funding issues and a lack of services that resulted in significantly poorer health outcomes.
THEY SAID IT: "High-speed rail would revolutionise interstate travel and would also be an economic game-changer for dozens of regional communities along its path." - Anthony Albanese
YOU SAID IT: Niki Savva's blistering book Bulldozed and the unfortunate legacy of Scott Morrison.
Bernard says: "Bulldozed was on the Christmas request list. When it arrived, we read it aloud to one another. Could a more objective reporter have managed to include so many relevant sources, so many people wanting to express an opinion? I think the Liberal Party will survive, but I think it will have a shade of Teal. Australian politics is not helped when a large slab of the media goes missing in action, not just to the detriment of the Liberal Party but, really, to the whole of Australia. The current robodebt royal commission would be unnecessary had the media that repeated the government's lies been a little bit more cautious."
Susan confesses: "I decided, as I arose this morning having heard Radio National and talk about the Voice, that I am no longer a Liberal. Sorry, Mum!"
Ann says her husband hadn't read a book for 50 years. "But he read this and could not put it down. Like you said - visceral reactions while Morrison was in power/s shown to be validated by the book - written by someone who knows our Federal Parliament inside and out."
Arthur thinks the Liberal Party will recover: "But it will take six or nine years to do so when the old guard has moved on. The party requires a complete overhaul. The Liberals have to learn that politicians are servants of the people, not servants of the political party to which they belong. Labor politicians also need to learn that. Crossing the floor should be common, not rare events."
Rosco says: "I doubt any person's objective assessment of the health, or otherwise, of the Liberal Party of Australia could arrive at any other conclusion than it is severely divided and broken and therefore unhealthy. If the controlling, conservative elements within the party cannot see the fact that party policy needs to contemporise then they are doomed. The Climate 200 movement and the election of the Teals in what were otherwise blue-ribbon electorates must send a clear and indisputable message: modernise or die."
Stuart says he is just to the right of Genghis Khan yet "I cannot agree more about Morrison. I was particularly enraged by his attack on Christine Holgate and that cost him one vote from me. A lot less than it cost Australia Post! I also agree that the church and the ministry should not impede on each other and clearly, in Morrison's case, it did."
Roger says it is unfair to call Savva biased: "She used to be really biased - to the Coalition. I now respect her; she has balanced the scales."
Leon says: "Our local Liberal member Bridget Archer managed to hold her seat of Bass here in northern Tasmania by being moderate and crossing the floor. The federal Liberal Party has lost its way and won't find its way back until it listens to people. And Peter Dutton is not the right man to do that, he is divisive. I am a Liberal voter but think our current Labor government is doing a good job. They deserved to win."
Roland thinks the pendulum will swing back: "Centre left as I am, I think the Liberals will come back eventually. Back in the day I thought Hawke and South Australia's John Bannon represented a permanent shift left. That did not last either. One day Labor and the Greens will stuff up in some creative way. Hopefully, later not sooner."