CANBERRA: The nation’s peak motorists group has called for an end to delays in starting a review into road user charging, warning the failure of electric cars to contribute to road works through fuel excise was being exacerbated as more and more vehicles hit the streets.
The government committed 14 months ago to the review, which will look at abolishing fuel excise and car registration fees and instead charge motorists for every kilometre they drive. As Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said there were benefits from electric cars, Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher said the review would be headed by an “eminent” Australian and begin “in the coming months”.
Tax and motoring experts, as well as a series of government reports including the Henry tax review, Infrastructure Australia and Productivity Commission, have long advocated for a switch to road user charging on efficiency and equity grounds to ease congestion and protect the revenue base to pay for road construction and maintenance.
Australian Automobile Association chief Michael Bradley said motorists were being short changed under the current regime, paying more in road taxes than governments spent on road upgrades and safety measures. It’s wonderful that a federal government is finally willing to take this issue on, but they need to get moving because this problem is getting worse by the day,” he said. Australia’s tax system as it relates to road use lacks fairness, sustainability, and transparency. Fuel excise is already unfair because drivers of different cars simultaneously pay different prices to use the same road. The current system also over-burdens the economically underprivileged because they own older, thirstier and less safe vehicles and enjoy poorer public transport options. Electric vehicles are coming and they currently transport their owners out of the fuel excise system altogether. We need to urgently understand the impact this will have upon revenue and infrastructure funding and the best way to prepare for a low emissions fleet.”
Mr Fletcher said any changes would be a 10-15 year process and require backing from the states and territories. Mr Joyce, who was in western NSW championing the government’s inland project, said the whole point of fuel excise was to help fund roads but was there was a benefit from the development of electric vehicles.
