To the shock and dismay of the Greens, it seems that our Victorian politicians are resisting the charm and allure of hybrid vehicles preferring instead to cruise St Kilda boulevard in Ford Territories and Holden Berlinas.

A list detailing the cars our parliamentarians drive was tabled in Parliament last week at the request of Greens MP Greg Barber. It seems there are only three hybrid powered vehicles in the fleet and only one that runs on LPG.

If you leave it up to the MPs, they will choose the biggest gas-guzzlers they can get, particularly because they don’t have to pay, Mr Barber said.

Interestingly MP’s only have to pay one-percent of their salary per year to be a part of the Parliament of Victoria vehicle policy scheme. This works out to an average of $1200.00 for a back-bencher, similar to what the average person would pay per month to finance a $60k car. The scheme includes not only the vehicle but also all running costs including mechanical, insurance and fuel.

Vehicles are replaced every 60,000klms or 3 years, whichever comes first. Currently the fleet under this scheme comprises 36 Ford Territories, 47 Holden Commodores, 27 Ford Falcons, 10 Mitsubishis and 6 Toyotas including 3 Priuses.

Now the Prius is certainly a frugal little thing but can you blame anyone for picking a normal car over one of these over-priced, over-rated, dynamically ordinary cars and what ever happened to buying Australian made? The average Australian may prefer imported cars but our politicians shouldn’t be given the option. If 129 million drivers changed to hybrids tomorrow it is unlikely to have a noticeable impact on global warming. Surely we can go without 129 of the things until an Australian made hybrid or diesel option becomes available.

We would be far better off with a few less grand standing politicians.

Source : Herald Sun