A road user charge should not be used to punish electric vehicle drivers, but to fairly price all motoring by distance, vehicle mass and pollution – with fossil-fuel vehicles still paying for the harm they cause.

Calls are being made to levy EV drivers a flat, per-kilometre rate for driving on our roads, ostensibly to make up for the revenue lost by virtue of them not buying the thing that attracts excise: fuel.

Australia spends an absolute fortune on roads and motorways: $44 billion last year, $36 billion the year before. For a population of 28 million, we spend $1,500 for every man, woman and child on roads. Most of this is directed towards brand new motorways and tunnels, while some goes towards maintaining the roads we already have. All levels of government spend money on roads but the majority is spent by state and territory governments, as they are responsible for managing road transport. All Australians benefit from safe, well-engineered roads even if they don’t drive a vehicle. So, it makes sense that a large portion of the funding comes from general revenue.

General revenue is sourced from income tax, resource royalties, duties, levies, excises and charges. We can parse out ‘road-related revenue’, which is made up of vehicle registration fees, licence fees, stamp duties, parking fees and fuel excise. That last one, fuel excise, is collected by the Commonwealth on all fuel sold at the refinery gate. Everyone who buys fuel to be burned in Australia pays this excise; however, some special customers get a tax credit paid back to them – namely miners, farmers, and heavy freight logistics firms. Needless to say, the vast majority of fuel excise is paid by motorists who drive petrol or diesel........

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