Is a road user charge for EVs really the best the Productivity Summit can do?

Sorry, I have to vent. If introducing a road user charge for electric vehicles is the best we can do out of the Productivity Summit, then God help this country.

Excise on petroleum fuels is not a road user charge, it is simply a convenient way for the Federal Government to raise taxation revenue.

As the Parliamentary Budget Office observed: “The excise and customs duty on petroleum fuel (referred to here as fuel tax) is one of the oldest taxes in Australia, applying since Federation in 1901.

“For some of that time there has been a link between the amount of excise raised and road funding. The formal link to road funding most recently ceased in 1992. Since then, fuel tax has been a general revenue-raising tax with only a minor link with the Australian Government’s overall level of road funding.”

As the PBO also observed: “Australian Government road spending has not followed movements in fuel tax over the last 15 years. In this period, while the ratio of Australian Government road spending to fuel tax revenue has averaged around 30%, it has varied substantially, mainly due to changes in road spending.”

Also keep in mind that use of petroleum fuels results in pollution that causes considerable harms to human health and also climate change. Electric vehicles are far less harmful (yes there are carbon emissions associated with electricity use but these are less for EVs than petrol cars).

So if this is really about how we intelligently raise taxation revenue rather than complete BS about how we fund roads – then let’s think a lot more broadly. As just one example, why does the tax office look the other way with people claiming their ute is predominantly used as a work vehicle to dodge income tax?