Government considering EV tax that could replace petrol taxes
To those among us who support a particular party, because the government is looking after them, Jim, the Wallet Wizard, Chalmers, is looking into an EV tax.
They need the money to convince you they are looking after you. That's all governments do, and any excuse is an excuse. Did EV buyers seriously think they would escape road taxes?
Came here for this.
We also sell huge amounts of gas to Japan for dirt cheap - more than they need. So what do they do with the excess? Arbitrage/drop ship straight from Australia to other countries, for a profit
We also sell huge amounts of gas to Japan for dirt cheap
Yet, at least in Vic, we are not allowed to use gas to save the envrionment…
Because everybody know that burning gas in Japan and China does not cause climate change, only burning it in Vic does……..
Meanwhile, government policies have forced fuel exploration and production to leave Australia, losing jobs, losing money and making us more dependant on other countries for our fuel.
more dependent on other countries for our fuel.
we arent even dependent on our own fuel sources.
we could be the pacific version of Dubai but the Govt is tooo weak
Yet, at least in Vic, we are not allowed to use gas to save the envrionment…
Can use gas for VAD though.
@Muppet Detector: Funny how all three of ‘em go real quiet on this one, eh.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are gettin’ stirred ur religion this, race that, fed through Insta and TikTok like it’s a bloody sport. Keeps everyone arguing with each other while nothing actually changes.
And the pollies? Mate, they’re sittin’ pretty, nice pay rises, cushy retirements, all looked after… cheers to the gas mob, no doubt.
Same old story, just dressed up different.
This makes me fumming, even more flamming that JV take makes sense
Much easier to bully citizens than big corporations.
Pocock is talking about it
Exactly. Sure, they're getting less revenue as less people buy petrol, but they need to find the revenue elsewhere instead of constantly looking to the working class. Tax our resource exports, tax billionaires' wealth, tax companies' revenue (not profits so they can't dodge taxes by offsetting their revenue).
would be nice to have cheap fuel again
Yeah but this isn't going to help fuel prices. At best it stops the government from increasing the fuel excise. They won't reduce it.
At best it stops the government from increasing the fuel excise.
That's never going to happen…
It's like having a drug addiction, they can't stop.
Just like luxury car tax. A tax that shouldn't exist because it was put in place to protect an industry that no longer exists. And for everyone saying luxury car tax should stay because if you can afford to buy a luxury car you can afford to pay it, its actually Toyota owners who pay the most LCT lol.
@perhaps: People don't 'need' cars in the LCT bracket. I want a Toyota Kluger but it's unaffordable for me so I brought a Camry instead. I'm very happy with the Camry but I still want a Kluger, well until petrol hits $4 a litre in which case I want a Yaris or an EV instead.
The vast majority of Australians will be perfectly fine in a Camry or a Commodore, just like those same Australians who were in the car market 30 years ago. But because SUVs exist we now want them, and now everyone wants bigger, more expensive vehicles with more sheetmetal. They cost much more to make, and needs more fuel to move.
There's no secret why the Chinese brands went straight for the SUV & Crossover segment when they entered the Australian market, instead of small economy hatchbacks like their East Asian predecessors. Because people want more. They don't need more, but they want more. And those Toyotas you talked about are so expensive they now hit the LCT bracket.
Anyway no one's going to want petrol/diesel SUVs once petrol settles permanently above $3 a litre. Those damaged oil infrastructure in the Gulf will take years to repair, assuming the Strait of Hormuz doesn't actually turn into a toll booth for Iran.
no one's going to want petrol/diesel SUVs once petrol settles permanently above $3 a litre.
You underestimate how bad people are with money
its actually Toyota owners who pay the most LCT
That would be all the rich farmers in their new Landcruiser's.
Why hasn't he gone metric ?
My father has gone metric (sort of lol) but he bought that boat before 1998 when (among other things), it became mandatory for new boats of that category/for that purpose, to be represented by the metric system.
@perhaps: I disagree, it should stay because only the rich and the dumb pay the LCT. It doesn't affect the vast majority of Australians. This is especially true now with the entry of the Chinese cars where a brand new premium 7 seater BYD Sealion 8 PHEV can be bought for a mere $60k and the Shark 6 PHEV ute can be bought for $57k. If you need to pay more than an additional 50-60% over these prices, then you are definitely looking for brand new luxury and can afford the tax. The more taxes we have in place that tax the rich and affluent, the more equitable our society will be. Us common folk with half a brain will never pay the LCT.
@supersabroso: Yes and when there is a critical mass of Chinese made cars in the country the CCP will get out their remote control and press the kill switch to shut all of them down…who will be laughing then
when there is a critical mass of Chinese made cars in the country the CCP will get out their remote control and press the kill switch to shut all of them down
This kind of conspiracy nonsense is a great example of why we can't seem to have a reasonable public discourse any more. There's far too many cookers who prefer to spout unsubstantiated rubbish rather than have a proper discussion.
Drug addicts can go to rehab. Politicians can't seem to stop spending.
@Muppet Detector: Once you get into government, you understand it's a great way to increase your personal wealth.
@eddyah: The people getting rich from the government are providers - aged care, NDIS, child care, employment services, construction companies, consultants etc etc. That's where the real money is.
@larndis: "people getting rich from the government are providers"
Transurban, various port operators, the list goes on.
Privatise it, son! lease sell it for 99 years.
I want them government leave us alone. Go grow a pair, and tax big coorp that's sucking this country dry. And no I'm not left or right wing.
You like it or not, EV tax is going to come. But for now, the government is having a party with all the GST it collected from the high fuel prices.
"Australian state and federal governments provided $16.3 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users in 2025-26"
"Excise tax collected in Australia is primarily paid into the federal government's general revenue …"
"Vehicle air pollution in Australia, particularly from trucks and buses, costs approximately $6.2 billion annually in health expenses. This includes premature deaths, hospital admissions, and illnesses such as asthma. Traffic-related pollution causes more deaths than the national road toll, with heavy diesel vehicles responsible for a large share of this burden"
🤷♂️ I guess let's also subsidise fags next and increase tax on fruit and gym memberships 🤷♂️
Why we’re subsiding the fossil fuel industry is beyond me
You like it or not, EV tax is going to come.
NZ already have one.
doesnt vic have one as well?
They did. Was deemed illegal and scrapped.
@MS Paint: Just for clarity - it was deemed unconstitutional.
The High Court determined the levy was a "duty of excise" (a tax on goods), a power exclusively reserved for the Commonwealth.
@Muppet Detector: It might be considered pedantic, but "illegal" means a criminal act - there's a law that specifically says your action is considered a crime.
The High Court's decision simply deemed the state legislation was invalid, as it wasn't a power the state government had the authority to enact.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
@klaw81: "but "illegal" means a criminal act"
It does not. There are state and federal criminal laws. Along the line of Crime Act and Crime Code Act for federal and various states.
Not all public laws that prohibit a behaviours - illegal, are criminal.
It might be considered pedantic, but "illegal" means a criminal act - there's a law that specifically says your action is considered a crime.
It might be considered pedantic, but whilst all criminal acts are illegal, not all illegal acts are criminal.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
Apparently can't google either.
Victoria get everything. They even get euthanasia.
NZ system is different though, they have a far more efficient national fleet than we do because pump prices are so high. They pay far less in rego, licensing and car insurance. Its more based around road use and how much driving you do
Tesla owner here. I’m worried that my smugness is going to decrease in all of this…
To those among us who support a particular party, because the government is looking after them
This idea that people only vote for the party treating them best financially is why you get so exasperated a lot of the time. People understand that taxes are necessary, so it isn't about who can eliminate something necessary, but who does the right thing with the money collected.
The political economy is balancing taxes against needs against wants and presenting platform justifying why a particular combination is best.
Darfur has low taxes, but is not the optimum balance of taxes and services for most Australians.
According to the latest statistics, electric vehicles make up just 2% of cars on the road. From a budgetary perspective, this is hardly worth considering. While a tax might be necessary in the distant future, it’s certainly not now especially during a fuel crisis. EVs are preserving valuable fossil fuels for farmers and essential services.
Clearly, now isn’t the time to put barriers to EV uptake.
Of course heavy trucks do most of the damage to roads - over 90%. But when I mentioned this to a truckie he told me if they if the road tax was enough to cover that either there would be no trucks or it would be passed on to the consumer.
He was only half right.
Of course heavy trucks do most of the damage to roads - over 90%. But when I mentioned this to a truckie he told me if they if the road tax was enough to cover that either there would be no trucks or it would be passed on to the consumer.
you're not wrong about trucks doing more damage but Truck rego is generally a lot higher then standard rego so there is a 'tax adjustment' as for that the bloke you where talking to has no idea he is a 'driver' and not a truck/business owner. Like most low IQ people he doesnt actually know what he is talking about.
the issue is the govt takes revenue for road maintience and puts it into consolidated revenue instead of specifically a fund for road upkeep
the issue is the govt takes revenue for road maintainance and puts it into consolidated revenue instead of specifically a fund for road upkeep
The obvious point here is that registration is a state tax, whereas the fuel excise is a federal tax.
Money raised from registration fees can go directly towards the maintenance of state-owned roads, but federal tax income has a much more convoluted route to reach the state-based organizations which maintain the highway system.
Any RUC in the future would also go into general revenue, unless the legislation is drafted specifically to allocate it directly to the states (which is extremely unlikely).
In Ja(profanity)a's Victoria, a truck can pay up to $1000 a day on her Toll roads, plus up to $20K for registration.
Excise has not been allocated to roads since Bob Hawke's days.
Trucks only do 63.7% of road damage. By their sheer weight EV's are the biggest upcoming problem.
I have a friend who is already needing to replace his driveway
Yeah, you almost had me till you started in with the "driveway replacement" bullshit.
but he knows a guy who knows a guy!
@surg3on: Sorry about the 63.7%. I couldn't be bothered looking it up, but neither did anyone else, in the true Ozbargain way.
Also terribly, terribly sorry about the driveway replacement story, but parking my hybrid on the grass is damaging it.
Sorry about the 63.7%. I couldn't be bothered looking it up, but neither did anyone else, in the true Ozbargain way.
Hahaha, you're the dude who's just making shit up and hoping that nobody notices so you can change the narrative by passing it off as fact.
He's the dude responsible for this little nugget:
Like most low IQ people he doesnt actually know what he is talking about
And ROFL, now he's admitting to just making shit up!.
Do you have the stats for trucks being responsible for 63.7% of the road damage?
Theyd be mad to implement it now. This is just another 'anti EV' beat up to try to scare people into staying with fossil fuels that make more profit for the fuel cartel.
What we need now is no more barriers to weaning us off petrol and diesel. Move towards energy independence and not relying on the middle east for energy for our vehicles. Once the majority of cars are EV, then the road tax should come in - at a federal level, just like fuel excise, but not now.
What we also really need now is a way to assist farmers and other producers to go electric so we dont end up with our food magically costing more when fuel spikes because of some stupid war on the other side of the planet. Low interest loans for battery tractors and harvesters etc. Solar panels and batteries at outback road houses, not diesel generators. The last 2 weeks has shown how vulnerable outback areas are to fuel supply when they have abundant sun and wind bit not the infrastructure to use it.
Cutting ICE use would also help our strategicc fuel reserves, you dont need as much in reserve if you dont use as much. You dont have to send as much all over the country, reducing the costs overall.
What we need now is no more barriers to weaning us off petrol and diesel. Move towards energy independence and not relying on the middle east for energy for our vehicles
One barrier to energy independence that I was thinking about is what needs to happen to make the necessary infrastructure available for charging the EV's for the (roughly) 1/3 of the population that are renting.
Probably needs to force the rental providers to do it (both public and private) but there will be pushback for this because the provision and maintenance will ultimately get passed onto the renter if not somehow absorbed or compensated for by the govt (for the social or low income housing).
At this point we need to take the easy wins. We can't fix all the problems today. Charging infrastructure will come. Renters with driveways can still granny charge off a regular powerpoint. The vast majority will get enough charge to commute from an overnight plug in to 10a.
For the rest, that currently fill up their petrol tanks once a week or less, can charge at a public charger once a week, while they are at the gym or shopping.
Dont forget that we can charge at slower rates where the destination is a longer stay. We only need the most expensive super fast chargers at highway rest stops, the rest can be cheaper, slower chargers. Theres no point having a charger capable of a 20min charge outside a restaurant where people spend a minimum 1hr inside. A movie cinema can have 2hr chargers. You can install more of them in these places for the same costas super fast ones.
what needs to happen to make the necessary infrastructure available for charging the EV's for the (roughly) 1/3 of the population that are renting
It's a good thing to consider, but there are a few easy solutions:
70% of rental houses are detached housing. Most of these would already be capable of granny charging at 2400W, which is slow but good enough for daily urban commutes.
Trials of various kerbside charging (channels under footpaths, lamp-post charging) are already underway for those who can only park on the street. Good solutions are going to emerge quickly, thanks to success in overseas markets.
Many new houses are being built with EV charging in mind - spare capacity in the switchboard, conduits or cables in the walls. This is similar to the way houses were being built "NBN-ready" a few years ago, and doesn't add much cost.
For the average urban dwelling, a high-powered charger is an unnecessary and expensive luxury. There's no reason to think that everyone will need a dedicated 32A 3-phase charger.
In the US, many dwellings have one or two 15A plugs they use for common household appliances with high power requirements, like a clothes dryer (it's a curious artefact of their 110V electrical architecture). Similarly, having a 15A plug in the garage of dwellings (or in the outside carport) will likely become a common feature of Australian homes as EV penetration increases.
According to the AI summary, only 21% of renters live in detatched housing…
"Based on 2021 Census data, approximately 73% of all Australian dwellings are separate/detached houses, but a significant portion of renters occupy apartments or townhouses, with roughly 21% of detached houses being rented"
I think apartments will be the biggest infrastructure challenge, and to a lesser extent those with no off-street parking.
Crazy idea… we could just start taxing our LNG rather than giving it away. That would more than cover the excise several times over.
It would mean Gina has to cut back a little though.
Was literally about to say this. If they taxed LNG we could reduce fuel costs by roughly 50c per litre and we would still be ahead by billions.
Also, an emergency 90 day fuel reserve would cost less than 1 year of taxing LNG
Agree!
Well this is Australia. No balls to tax what should be taxed and instead squeezes PAYG. After all income tax + GST alone makes up over 65% of net tax collections.
Stop voting in Socalist governments?
Lol. I don't think it's the socialists getting the reduced company rate, CGT discount and negative gearing.
If by socialist, you're referring to a socialist government (which I think is supposed to be Labor for this context/discussion), I bet they are. They're just double dipping.
Username checks out…
As an owner of an EV, I am happy to pay road user tax. What I think is stupid is that there is going to be 2 seperate taxation systems on road use based on how your vehicle is powered.
Whatever change they make should be done at the federal level and not the state level like the bullshit they tried to pull in Vicwegia where you could essentially be taxed in Vicwegia and you could be driving your car in NSW or SA if you lived near and worked over the boarder.
Username checks out…
Yes, absolutely correct.
What I think is stupid is that there is going to be 2 separate taxation systems on road use based on how your vehicle is powered.
Maybe not. Chalmers seems to be leaning towards an a "per kilometer" road user charge for all vehicles, while the fuel excise remains in place as a pollution charge at a reduced level.
Whatever change they make should be done at the federal level
That's mandatory - the High Court has made it clear that state-based levies of this kind are unconstitutional.
They should tax and register those e-bike riders that use the road, bike lanes, footpath, pedestrian crossings, without any regulation or insurance.
And the dirt bike riders who use the bus lane.
Oh, I understood that reference…
We've discussed this many times in the forums…
TL:DR:
Waaaaaa
Derrr, of course an EV tax is expected. We use a tax on fuel to contribute to road maintenance and this needs modification for EV owners to pay their fair share. Pretty well all EV owners are very aware of this. Is this some sort of news that you learnt today?
OTOH, your amber turd mate has thrown a wild card into this process and the expected EV road user charge might be a bit further off. The pressure is on to get Australians less dependent on oil and taxing EVs wont help this. So I'm expecting talk of a road user charge to go a bit quiet again for a while.
Given what's happened EV owners can also now argue that our investment has been in the national interest - and buying ICE is un-Australian….
Suck sh@t urban ICE lovers!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Suck sh@t urban ICE lovers!!!
How odd. Now people are all red team vs blue team "go my team! boo your team!" with types of cars.
There's all kinds of bread and circuses for the masses I guess.
We use a tax on fuel to contribute to road maintenance
And yet somehow the roads are still average at best.
True - supports the view that revenue from EVs might help.
I hate to break the news to you but Excise has gone into General Revenue for Decades. Is this some sort of news that you learnt today?
But…in order to pay your fair shars, EV's weigh <> 30% more that equivalent cars and should pay 30% more excise, ergo, road tax.
The topic isn't about your amber turd mate,
It's about the government taking whatever opportunity to introduce a new tax and then con all the "Suck sh@t urban communism lovers!!!"
Read the real news
Not really, don't need fuel trucks on the road which would save much more in road maintenance.
However the answer is simple, one tax for all vehicle types regardless of fuel type. This will never happen though because all of us who drives an ICE vehicle will become immediately aware of just how much money the government is raking in of us.
That's OK friend, the concept of both Consolidated Revenue and hypothecation isnt lost on me.
While the weight difference isn't 30%, there are lots of counter arguments both ways. Not proposing to spent either the time or the 1s and zeros to ramble here.
I guess the irony part went over some heads….
Makes sense. Roads, bridges, rail, and cycle paths cost money.
Don't tell me there is a party who is opposed? Not the Greens? Please don't tell me it's the Greens.
Makes sense. Roads, bridges, rail, and cycle paths cost money.
been saying Cyclist should pay a rego for a bout 10 years
thanks rupert
thanks Jim
i fixed it for you
As an EV owner I don't really care if they do introduce it, and yes EV owners should also pay - that lost income in fuel excise has to come from somewhere. It would add for a normal person driving the average kms per year $300-$400 per annum - big deal. When it costs me almost nothing to run my EV it's still way, way cheaper.
When it costs me almost nothing to run my EV it's still way, way cheaper.
Exactly this. in the last 12 months I have outside DC charging about 3 or 4 times for a grand total of about $50~$60 in charging. The rest of my charging has been done at home off solar or the 3 hour of free electricity window I get every day.
The wife drives a Corolla Hybrid and she put around $1,200~$1,300 in fuel last year. If I have to pay $200~$400 a year in "road user tax", I'll still be about $1,000 in front of the Corolla.
Fuel excise in Feb 2026 was set to around $0.526. An average vehicle that uses 8litres/100km and doing an average 13,200km per year uses about 1,056 litres of fuel. Of that 1,056 litres of fuel, $593 of what they pay is "fuel excise", so even just on excise alone, I am still in front driving an EV.
Just wait till they slap a "road user tax" on ALL vehicles and leave the "excise" on fossil fuels as an "environmental" charge. Then that EV tax is looking sweeter each time.
Please, so at least I spend something to run my EV car aside from $3 car air freshener every 4 weeks especially during this petrol concern. Would love to share something. Hate it when work have free chargers.
Shame that nobody is talking about missing taxes from gas industry which australia is literally giving for free unlike Norway and Qatar
Gas pays 0 taxes