By Esther Lauaki
A week after telling Victorians who have saved for a luxury car to “get a life”, it has been revealed that Treasurer Tim Pallas got special permission to have a Lexus as his chauffeur-driven ministerial car.
Mr Pallas’ new car is a Lexus IS350, which has a base price of about $74,000.
“Why did he receive an exemption from the normal government purchasing policy to get himself a nice little luxury Lexus to tool around in?” Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien asked, during question time in Parliament.
In response, Mr Pallas said the government was reviewing appropriate vehicles. “We’ve had to take some vehicles off the list because they’re no longer Australian-made vehicles necessarily,” he said.
“I wonder why that is? Well because those opposite did nothing to save our domestic manufacturing industry, nor did their friends in Canberra.
“So the fact that we are in the process of looking at what vehicles appropriately fit the safety and efficiency guidelines that we set as a government is really a demonstration of their failure to do their job in government.”
In last month’s state budget, Mr Pallas increased the duty on luxury cars valued upward of $100,000 from July 1, which is expected to raise $260 million.
At a post-budget lunch, he had little sympathy when asked why it was fair to tax someone who, for example, had saved for decades to buy a hi-spec LandCruiser.
“They’ve been saving up for 20 years for this? Get a life,” he told the luncheon.
At the budget lock-up the day before, Mr Pallas admitted to journalists he had not caught a peak-hour train to work for three years.
Last week it was also revealed he offloaded his Westpac BlueChip20 fund, which included shares in Transurban, the toll road giant in
line to haul in billions from its deal to build the West Gate Tunnel.
–The Age
