Thread: "Toll proposed for Pacific Highway"

Are you people dreaming that if the Libs win next election they are going to remove the tax or not add new ones?
Both parties are the same pirates

I think that one of the problems that we have in Australia is our vast distances and the size of the roads network for perhaps only 6 millon of users.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

Well, the continuously increasing number of pensions being paid to our ever ageing population are sucking up govt funds at an alarming rate....faster than the govt can really provide. The only way for our infrastructures/untilities to survive is a user pays system or increased flash for cash units everywhere.I agree with Weeds and somehow we need to be able to enforce our governments at local, state and federal level to use all funding collected for road funding for exactly that purpose not redistributed to other expenditure.

I am a pensioner, as are a number of others on this forum--but will not comment on this statement, except to say a lot of the costs for keeping pensioners are due to the lifestyles they chose. For example Hospitals treat many for heart disease, stroke and cancer caused by the fast junk food, smoking & alcohol that we eat & drink. If the government had the balls to tell the Public that the fast food they ate made clogged up their arteries, and could lead to them spending years in a nursing home with a big hairy male nurse washing their privates and wiping their bottom because they had a stroke due to clogged up arteries [from eating fast greasy food], then perhaps fewer would eat & drink what will put them in nursing homes employing big hairy male nurses, when they get to later in life [I worked in a nursing home for a while, and had to wipe stroke victim's bottoms]. That is a lot of the cost of keeping pensioners healthy, medical bills, etc., that the tax payer pays for is due to people being kept in ignorance of the harm their lifestyle is doing them.

But back to the issue of this thread that I started, the proposed Road tax on us.

Originally Posted by garrycol

There are no "admin" or steady monthly costs associated with an RTA e-tag.

No, my mistake - merely $80 up front, for tolls that may only be incurred every couple of years.

John

Everyone forgets, that if the current regos, stamp duties,fuel taxes on motorist went where they should go when they were introduced we would now have concrete Express ways twice fold where needed in Aust.
The motorist more than pays for roads now.
The money gets diverted to other things like pollies super funds and free grog and lunches with a govt supplied holiday or car .
Toll roads stink....end of story.......no excuses....the money is there.
Does any one remember in NSW the 3x3 fuel tax ..........3 cents per litre for 3 years and that would supply enough money to fix our roads........and then we will just extend it for another 3 years to fix the Pacific hwy.
Guess what we still have that tax and I think its been more than 25 years ?

Let's do a small exercise in pricing and hypothesise about pricing a coach tour fare.
We work out what the stable costs are, coach hire, fuel, equipment depreciation, (tyres, servicing etc.), time, wages, admin and advertising fees etc., etc. not forgetting taxes and, woe forbid, a marginal profit, and eventually come up with an overall cost for the whole product; ($x.) We then divide this amount by a set number of passengers, possibly well less than 50%, to allow for less than maximum loadings, and to this amount we then add each passenger's personal accommodation costs (Single/ shared etc.) Don't forget to add 11% (so that you can give the pensioner/ single Mum/Uni student or whoever you are trying to attract 10% discount) then add another 11% so the selling agent gets his 10% commission! Now we have arrived at the actual advertised cost per passenger for the proposed tour.
Then we find that there is a matter of a couple of toll fees that have to be covered, let's say about $20 including the return trip.
To be fair to the passengers, we wont add the total toll fee to each ticket price (remember the number of passengers is a bit of a gamble) but instead spread it over the minimum number that the Government says we have to run the trip for, 4 passengers!
So we add $5 to the price of each tourist ticket. 4x $5=$20
What happens if I get 45 passengers I hear you ask?
Don't for one minute think that I am going to give everyone a proportionate amount of their fare back, I am going to keep that extra $55 and perhaps enjoy a beer or two that night at someone else's expense.
And that Ladies and Gentlemen is roughly how "User Pays" is dealt with by commerce.
Feel free to replace the word "passenger" with "groceries", "small goods", "freight", "fuel" or any other substance that is carried up and down our highways. The pricing exercise uses the same principals.
Where would we be without the unsuspecting naive consumer like you and I.
A fixed tax is much cheaper than any "User pays" system can ever be, not that I think either are suitable quick fixes for inept ministerial money management for our road system, especially on top of the already in place fuel levy in certain states.
Regards
Glen

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Everyone forgets, that if the current regos, stamp duties,fuel taxes on motorist went where they should go when they were introduced we would now have concrete Express ways twice fold where needed in Aust.
The motorist more than pays for roads now.
The money gets diverted to other things like pollies super funds and free grog and lunches with a govt supplied holiday or car .
Toll roads stink....end of story.......no excuses....the money is there.
Does any one remember in NSW the 3x3 fuel tax ..........3 cents per litre for 3 years and that would supply enough money to fix our roads........and then we will just extend it for another 3 years to fix the Pacific hwy.
Guess what we still have that tax and I think its been more than 25 years ?

You stole my thunder mate. This tax was supposed be the be all and end all. By the way did they ever call it off???

Originally Posted by JDNSW

No, my mistake - merely $80 up front, for tolls that may only be incurred every couple of years.

John

Plus the $40 security for the etag.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Labor placing a price on things that were previously free.
.

They got the idea from Jeff Kennett, Tullamarine Fwy, 1990's Still, it would have been nice for all you northerners pay for my tolls over the last 13 years!