A $15 million truck trade-in scheme that promised to reduce pollution in Melbourne’s inner west has not paid a single grant in 18 months of existence, with the only two applications to the program rejected.
The Department of Transport and Planning is now reviewing the scheme, a key part of its pledge to improve air quality in the region, after it failed to attract enough attention to spend any money.
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Martin Wurt says the failure of the trade-in scheme felt like a broken promise.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
Labor first announced it would spend $15 million modernising trucks using streets across the inner west as a 2022 election commitment, pledging grants up to $20,000 each to help owners of old vehicles upgrade to models that emit less pollution.
But despite being budgeted for and opening in October 2023, not a single grant has been paid.
In the first round of funding lasting three months, just two applications were received, and neither met the criteria for funding to be released.
A second round of funding was promised in 2024 but did not open, and the department is now reviewing the scheme to understand what went wrong. It says the program has not come to an end and no allocated funds have been spent.
Studies have previously shown air pollution in parts of Yarraville through which trucks drive through to access the Port of Melbourne is twice the acceptable rate as determined by the Environment Protection Authority. Maribyrnong City Council declared a health emergency in the municipality in 2023 because of the impacts of air and noise pollution from heavy trucks using local roads.
A related commitment of $5 million for resealing works has been awarded to three local councils, and these projects are expected to be finished within coming months.
Martin Wurt, president of the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group, said the failure of the scheme felt like a broken promise.
“We were really excited about it. We thought, for the first time, there is a concrete policy that is going to start removing dirty old trucks,” he said.
“To know that it hasn’t achieved anything since it was announced in 2022 is just so disappointing. How long does this community have to wait for change?”
The program invited truck owners to demolish vehicles that did not meet European Emission Standard 4, a rating introduced in the Europe in 2006 that asks for a significant reduction in pollutants.
Owners would be compensated with a grant equal to the value of their truck on the used truck market, up to the limit of $20,000.
Wurt said he had been concerned about the program when it was first announced because grants of $20,000 appeared too low to help operators who couldn’t afford to upgrade.
“It’s not enough money to really get that change, and with only two people applying for that first round, I think that basically sums it up. [The limit of] $20,000 was laughable.”
Wurt said he hoped the $15 million would remain allocated to reducing pollution in the region.
It is estimated that 32 per cent of the nation’s truck fleet, or more than 272,000 vehicles, will be more than 21 years old in 2030, according to the Truck Industry Council.
The council, an advocacy group representing manufacturers, importers and suppliers calling for more modern trucks, also says the average age of an Australia truck is 14.8 years.
In 2022, the Grattan Institute warned that trucks built before pollution standards were introduced in 1996 emitted at least 60 times more particulate matter than new models.
Victorian Transport Association chief executive Peter Anderson said the state government’s approach was well intentioned, and the industry wanted to upgrade Victoria’s ageing fleet of heavy vehicles.
“Renewing Victoria’s heavy vehicle fleet is essential for ensuring the freight and logistics industry is safe, productive, and on a sensible pathway to reduce emissions over time,” he said.
“Incentivising operators to upgrade old prime movers for quieter and less emissions-intense ones is preferable to penalising them, so we support assistance that achieves this.”
Inner-west residents have also been demanding pollution filters be installed on vents that will expel fumes from the West Gate Tunnel.
Testing stations have been set up to monitor air quality for the suburbs around the tunnel and the ventilation stacks.
“We’re getting trucks off roads in Melbourne’s inner west and making air cleaner – replacing emissions-heavy old trucks, sealing roads to reduce dust pollution and introducing no-truck zones when the West Gate Tunnel opens later this year,” a Transport Department spokesperson said.
Opposition environment spokesperson Brad Rowswell said Melbourne’s inner west had some of Australia’s highest rates of asthma and lung disease, both of which could be linked to air pollution.
“Every Victorian deserves to breathe clean air – but all they get from this decade-old Labor government is hot air and lip service.
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