Hussein Dia, Swinburne University of Technology; Hadi Ghaderi, Swinburne University of Technology, and Tariq Munir, Swinburne University of Technology
Support for road-user charging strengthens when people are assured that revenue goes into reducing traffic congestion, maintaining transport infrastructure, improving public transport.
If the fuel excise cut is not extended, average petrol prices in Australia will almost certainly return to the above $2 territory by early October. But a different solution is needed.
It is deeply regretful that the budget and forward estimates don’t specifically recognise the ongoing scale and the fiscal impact of climate disasters.
Proposals to cut Australia’s fuel excise will prolong an already alarming dependence on oil-based imports and undermine policies to shift the nation away from fossil fuels.
The benefits of road-user charging are now well established. And including electric vehicles doesn’t have to be a deterrent to their uptake, as New Zealand and other nations have shown.
Traffic congestion is the main cost that cars create when they use existing roads. Road use charges are a more efficient and fairer way to cover the cost and help ensure traffic flows.
Australians are crying out for political leadership. One way our leaders can redeem themselves is by getting to work on a complete shake-up of how we pay for and use transport infrastructure.
Charging people to drive has been the dream of policy wonks – serving politicians tend to see it as political poison. So when federal minister Paul Fletcher raises it, that’s a step forward.
Road safety is a seriously important public policy issue. Around 1.3 million people die in road crashes around the world each year. Among teenagers and young adults, road crashes are the number-one cause…
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Motorists will pay more for petrol from November despite the Senate numbers not being there to pass the budget’s fuel tax hike. The government has found a way around the recalcitrant Senate – it is imposing…
Although Australia’s tax-to-GDP ratio is low by international standards, no-one wants to discuss how we might pay for the improvements needed to public transport, and even less the need for taxation to…
“The people that actually pay the most are higher income people, with an increase in fuel excise… The poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases.” – Treasurer…
When a government has to negotiate with crossbenchers there is often an element of humiliation involved, especially if that government suffers from a touch of “born to rule”. Governments think of themselves…
UPDATED ON TUESDAY 22 JULY: See editor’s note below for details on the updates. In this year’s federal budget, the Abbott government moved to restart automatically increasing the fuel excise in line with…