Air quality is generally good in Victoria,,which trucks drive through to get to and from the Port of Melbourne.
The state’s 10-year clean air strategy,will be released on Thursday by Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio,who will also propose subsidies for truck operators who upgrade their vehicles and cut down on engine emissions.
Labor will spend $15 million on those subsidies if it wins next month’s election,and another $5 million worth of grants would be made available to local councils to seal roads,to reduce dust pollution from trucks,and “give communities in the west a breath of fresh air”.
“No community should have to worry about air quality in their suburb,” D’Ambrosio said.
Martin Wurt,from the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group,welcomed the announcement but wanted specific targets for air quality,filtration in the West Gate Tunnel toll road,and freight moved onto rail.
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“There’s no one magic solution to the truck issue,” Wurt said. “Yes we need cleaner trucks,but we also need less trucks.”
The Andrews government forecasts Transurban’s West Gate Tunnel toll road will take 9000 trucks off local roads once it’s built. The $10 billion project is expected to be completed by 2025.
The Environment Protection Authority last year revealed that at one Yarraville road junction the average air pollution levels were double the acceptable rate,breaching the state’s standards on average once every 10 days.
In this year’s state budget,the government also handed out $2.8 million in grants to reduce localised air pollution for the inner and outer west.
There is showing that traffic-related air pollution is linked to a higher risk of asthma,the onset of childhood asthma and reduced lung function in children.
Children are particularly vulnerable to traffic-pollution exposure because their lungs are still developing.
Diabetes,dementia,stroke,cancer and mental illness have also been linked to air pollution,and Victoria’s air quality strategy said air pollution costs the state more than $1 billion a year in health expenses.
“Without continued action,exposure to air pollution is expected to increase in the future,” the government’s air quality strategy said.
D’Ambrosio said the strategy was preparing Victoria to meet the challenges of climate change and population growth.
last year acknowledged there was “much more that could be done” to address pockets of pollution and the subsequent potential health outcomes.
Last week,the government announced it would spend and accelerate its emissions targets to an 80 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2035 and net-zero by 2045.
The opposition has kept its emissions’ reduction target at net-zero by 2050.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Monday said the Coalition,if elected,would,and invest $50 million to boost the uptake of low-emissions cars.
Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle motorists in the state are charged a road usage tax of 2.6¢ or 2.1¢ for every kilometre they drive based on annual odometer readings.
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