Will off-road journeys attract tolls?
The prospect of massive changes to the way Australian roads are financed that could see vehicle registration fees scrapped is once again firmly back on the political agenda.
Infrastructure Australia has launched its ‘Making Reform Happen’ report which has echoed calls in its earlier ‘Australian Infrastructure Plan’ for a new system that would see motorists pay for roads based on the amount they use them.
The Federal Government has previously signalled its broad support for the idea of transitioning to what is portrayed as a fairer user-pays approach. While grey nomads – who cover drive more than a few kilometres in big rigs – might be nervous about being slugged for the distance they cover, Infrastructure Australia has some reassuring words.
“The road user charging model we are proposing would be based in part on demand and location – that is, focusing road user charges on roads that experience congestion,” an Infrastructure Australia Spokesperson told the GNT. “For example, this might mean charging more during times of peak demand in locations that are experiencing high congestion, like the inner city.”
Infrastructure Australia says efforts to reform user charging should be sensitive to the implications for those on modest or fixed incomes.
“All drivers currently fund our road network through fuel excise, registration fees and in some cases tolls,” said the spokesperson. “However this system doesn’t fairly distribute the cost of our road networks, especially as fuel excise declines as electric vehicles and alternative fuels become more commonplace in the future.”
The Australian Infrastructure Plan contained some drastic proposals relating to the current fuel excise taxes and road registration fees paid by vehicle owners.
“A reformed charging framework for roads would see all existing taxes and fees removed and replaced with direct charging that reflects each user’s own consumption of the network, including the location, time and distance of travel, and the individual characteristics of their vehicle such as weight and emissions,” it said.
Infrastructure Australia says a user pays system would seek to redress the existing imbalance which sees heavy road network users in congested areas subsidised by lower impact users on regional roads.
Despite reassuring words and the prospect of registration fees being scrapped, some will remain nervous at the idea of being charged the moment their tyres hit the tarmac.
Infrastructure Australia’s Chief Executive, Philip Davies, admits push-back from motorists is inevitable.
“It’s a hard conversation to have with the community,” he said.
Whatever anyone thinks about it, it seems the road charging change is coming.
“We need to look at new way of doing things,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack. “We are looking at pricing at the moment”.
Are these people living in fairyland? Electric vehicles are a long way off replacing petrol/diesel vehicles. They obviously do not venture too far outside their ivory towers. No tractor, combine harvester, B double, B Triple, or any other truck required to transport goods, or harvest grain, or plough a field can run on sunshine or electricity. None us living in rural areas will run an electric vehicle. At what cost to the motorist will be this preposterous idea? Who thinks up these really stupid ideas?
My immediate response to this is the complexity and cost of implementation of such a scheme. Surely the current system of registration, tolls and fuel excises is actually easy to implement and collect the revenue. How would a government be able to measure the kms travelled on which roads and by what weight and fuel source of vehicles? It would be too complex, so, like Robyn said (above) they are living in fairy land.
More economic illiteracy. The Federal government is the issuer of the AU$. It doesn’t need to find the money. It creates it by computer key stroke.
we have some stupid people out there the distance in out back is very great we live in qld but have good friends in S/A / W/A / N/T and we travel most of the year!!!
Im too busy getting on and enjoying whats left of my life rather than to be concerned or bothered too much what bureaucrats, public servants, and politicians are planning on what might be, could be, or should be.
By the time they make a decision on this…if ever, I’ll be too old to drive anymore.
Dont let it worry you. Safe travels, enjoy life and have a happy time.
Just so complex a plan, it would cost billions of dollars to manage. Which is exactly what those proposing it want. Create more work and bigger salaries for themselves.
And if they’re suggesting that it will cost less to drive on roads when there is less traffic, this would encourage motorists to drive at night!
On the road safety issue alone, this proposal needs to be knocked on the head.
bloody ridiculous, different states, different ruling, I for one believe leave as is, user pays registration once a year and that’s it, the current system is already bleeding the user, tax this, tax that, everything that one can think off holds a tax for the state, yet, they cannot find funds to repair, we are talking big $ here. where is it going and to whom is this being filtered into something else defies logic. If government wants this new system, it is going to add cost beyond measure to all, we all pay our fair share, stop building your pay packets and start doing the right thing with public money instead of trying to fleece more money out of a system that is rift with bad management of public funds.
just another case of fiddling and saying it will be better. look at victorias privatised power !!! politics wont move if they cant make money .