The Gillard Labor Government will increase the financial assistance available to mainland Australians wanting to take their car and caravan to Tasmania, King Island, Flinders Island or any of the islands which make up the Furneaux Group to visit family or to take a holiday.

From this coming Friday (1 July 2011), the maximum rebates under the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme will be set at:

The rebate paid is limited to the ferry operator's vehicle fare for that particular type of passenger vehicle.

The Scheme has become critical to the Tasmanian economy, with new research from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics finding it has been responsible for a 28 per cent increase in the number of people visiting the Island for a driving holiday.

That's why in our very first Budget we instituted annual indexation for the first time.

In fact since coming to office in late 2007 we've paid out more than $120 million in rebates, real money which has helped make a Tasmanian holiday easier and more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Australian families.

The Scheme was introduced to reduce the cost of transporting eligible passenger vehicles across Bass Strait. Administered by Centrelink, the rebate is delivered as a reduction in the fees charged by ferry operators.