Letter

In response to Australia’s EV boom has caught policymakers napping

The proposed road pricing for EVs is stupid

Approximately $26 billion was raised from fuel excise duties in 2024-25. Incredibly, over $10 billion was returned in the form of tax credits to the mining ($4.8 billion) and agricultural ($1.2 billion) sectors and others.

The economic cost of pollution produced by combustion engine cars and trucks likely exceeds the excise duties that are raised (refer to John Quiggin’s article in ‘The Conversation’ exactly one year ago.)

The discriminatory Road Pricing scheme for EV proposed by the state premiers will almost certainly slow the transition from petrol/diesel vehicles to the clean energy EVs – this is bad news for everyone; bad for our health, bad for the climate, and bad for the economy.

Introduce a road pricing scheme by all means but it should apply to all vehicles, anything less is stupid. Continuing to hand back fuel excise to the booming mining and fossil fuel sectors is not just stupid it is reprehensible.

— John Turner from inverloch