Fuel efficient cars may damage our road maintenance?

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Originally Posted by Kidbeen

Don't worry, the politicians will simply raise the GST to 15%.

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I think you are on the money, the threat to raise the GST has been hanging over the publics head for some time now.

Any government needs to raise funds to cover the cost of what it does. In many cases part of this is raised by a tax on energy consumption. They may offer discounts to create a temporary competitive advantage and attract people to alternative fuels while a market is established/reaches critical mass however at the end of the day they have a tax target to reach. Politics and sector lead pressure groups will impact on deciding where these discounts are offered and for how long they remain in place.

It is only to be expected that a new way of calculating tax on fuel will follow any change in fuel source. Figuring this out is going to be a bigger issue for countries that unlike Australia charge high levels of tax on energy consumption.

The current tax on fuel is equitable as it is directly connected to miles travelled and the amount of fuel used. The user can make decisions to pay more or less tax based on distance driven and economy of the vehicle selected. Drive more miles use more fuel pay more tax.

IF the government stopped wasting and diverting the funds raised via excise and licencing there wouldn't be a problem.

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Originally Posted by 3toes

Any government needs to raise funds to cover the cost of what it does.

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More like "Any government needs to raise funds to cover the cost of what it wastes.

Raising alcohol tax has already been mooted, just to save us from ourselves.

Brew your own

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Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

Maybe they'll go the NZ system of a road tax, for distance traveled with kilometer counters on the rims. You only pay for your use of the road when you are wearing out the tarmac.

With the price of Electricity going up all the time, it probably won't be economical to drive electric cars, remember LPG, the fuel of the future, the government encouraged us to convert to it then started to raise the price of LPG once people started using it.

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NZ is a small country so this style of system works but I'd be worries about those that live in remote areas and in rural Australia getting raped by this sort of system. Here in Melbourne, the average commute is 30 odd KM each way and a bit of running around picking the kids up etc. What about those that have to drive 100's of KM to town and back and 100's of KM each day getting around their properties etc? I used to live 120KM from the shops and clock up many more KM then that I did when I moved to the city and I was earning much less - crap system for these sort of people.

There would need to be so many different pricing structures, exemptions etc it would be a night mare. You'd also need it to be a National scheme, so if you know how to get all the States to agree to a standardised rego system, I'm all ears.

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Originally Posted by Homestar

NZ is a small country so this style of system works but I'd be worries about those that live in remote areas and in rural Australia getting raped by this sort of system. Here in Melbourne, the average commute is 30 odd KM each way and a bit of running around picking the kids up etc. What about those that have to drive 100's of KM to town and back and 100's of KM each day getting around their properties etc? I used to live 120KM from the shops and clock up many more KM then that I did when I moved to the city and I was earning much less - crap system for these sort of people.

There would need to be so many different pricing structures, exemptions etc it would be a night mare. You'd also need it to be a National scheme, so if you know how to get all the States to agree to a standardised rego system, I'm all ears.

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The New Zealand system taxes you on a per km travelled on road , and the diesel is less at the pump(Diesel is cheaper than petrol in NZ, unlike here). So the tax is there, just paid in a different way. Any diesel powered vehicle or boat, not used on a road, isn't being taxed for road use.

Hi,
Perhaps the answer will be somewhat in the form of an uploaded gps log, weighted on location/zone, duration and time of day, and the day of the week/month/year.

Drive to the city in commuting hours/days at expensive rates or do the trip after hours for a cheaper rate.

This could spread the load on the infrastructure and lower peak stress.

Cheers

Trouble with that (and similar) ideas is that it requires new electronic equipment to be installed in every registered vehicle in the country, including visiting vehicles from overseas, and vehicles that may be decades old (some with heritage registration), plus vehicles exempt from state or territory registration, such as fire engines and military vehicles. It then requires a system that can regularly download the data, bearing in mind that there is no mobile phone coverage in most of the area of the country, and many car owners have no internet access. Having agreed on a common system between all the states and territories for such a system, and enforced compliance, there is merely the problem of ensuring that the data base and individual devices cannot be tampered with or hacked, and is free of significant bugs.

I won't say it is impossible, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it either.