Over to you WESTERN ROADS FEDERATION by Cam Dumesny, CEO
The New Government Road Tax
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ederal Government agencies are now using the need to reduce Green House Gas emissions to push the case for a new road transport tax to replace the declining revenue from fuel excise.
Quick Background • Fuel Excise (the tax on fuel to pay for roads) is declining relative to the increasing distance travelled as we move to more efficient vehicles (including electric vehicles who don’t buy fuel so don’t pay to use roads). That means the Government is not collecting enough tax. • Road Pricing Reform, which is a policy discussion on how Governments can charge to use roads has gone nowhere. This is where you hear the terms massdistance charging, i.e. paying per kilometre per tonne carried. This concept in its current form would effectively destroy regional Australian 16
WATM • July 2020
communities and businesses and the transport companies that support them. By the way, it can also include congestion tax, ie paying to enter cities at peak hours, which has benefits for our industry. But I will explain why another day. Politically, road pricing reform is a poisoned chalice, so it will be a brave government that implements it.
So When All Else Fails – Tax the Truckies And that is exactly what a bureaucratically titled report released near the beginning of June 2020 by a Federal Agency was all about. Called “Decarbonisation of Road Transport Network Operations in Australia and New Zealand” the report effectively calls for a new tax on the road transport industry. Taxing “the Dirty Truckies” is far more politically acceptable as the average voter thinks well that doesn’t affect me.
For the record, in plain English I have added what each of the terms in the report’s recommendations actually means: • Assigning the costs of emissions at source – that means to tax the Trucks and Delivery Vans. • Incentivising efficient or electric vehicles – higher tax for older vehicles and probably no tax for electric. • Incentivising mode shift – Penalise road so we can put more on rail.
Now Here are My Recommendations Assigning the costs of emissions at source If the Government was serious about reducing Green House Gas emissions from the transport sector, then place a charge on consumers and business customers. Consumers and business customers drive supply chain mode choices not the transport industry. For example, an inner-city hipster sipping on a turmeric latte whilst ordering Online the latest book on say
