It was supposed to be one of the answers to Melbourne residents’ pollution issues caused by older trucks that regularly travelled through the inner west to the Port of Melbourne.
The Victorian Government’s $20 million Clean Air for the Inner West program offfered $5 million for grants available to councils to seal local roads and reduce dust pollution, and a further $15 million to truckies to trade in their older, pre-Euro 4 trucks for up to $20,000 in cash.
Three local councils were awarded $5 million for resealing works, but more than 18 months after the program kicked off, not a cent of the $15 million for truck trade-ins has been spent, confirmed the Department of Transport and Planning to Big Rigs today.
The first round of applications for modernising the truck fleet was open for just three months in 2023, with two applications received and assessed.
“Neither of these applications satisfied the criteria, and no grants were awarded. No funds for modernising the truck fleet have been spent,” a department spokesperson told Big Rigs.
A second round of funding was promised in 2024, but didn’t eventuate.
“Given the low uptake, we are currently reviewing our approach to support the industry to transition to newer, cleaner, lower-emissions trucks to access the Port of Melbourne.
“There has been no decision to end the program.”
In a Facebook post to his followers today, Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG) President Martin Wurt expressed his disappointment that the program failed to get the desired result.
He said MTAG raised concerns that $20,000 was too low to be an effective incentive when this scheme was first announced, but welcomed it anyway, happy that something was finally being done about “old polluting trucks”.
“It is so disappointing that a program, aimed at helping both truck drivers and inner west residents, has achieved nothing, absolutely nothing. Not one old polluting truck has been removed from our streets,” Wurt posted.
“It is also infuriating that “government spokespersons” have responded to our filtration campaign with statements on how they are upgrading old trucks. This is gaslighting at its best!
“If effective action was actually taken on old trucks we would be less concerned about the Westgate Tunnel’s unfiltered ventilation stacks. After a 20-year fight, backed by health and transport experts, this is so so disappointing.”