On 15 August 2025, our economist Anna Wilson joined Nadia Mitsopoulos on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio Perth to discuss the growing conversation around road user charges, as fuel excise revenues continue to decline.
Her interview starts at 41:32 and is recommended listening not only for those involved in solving this issue, but anyone who will likely be impacted.
Some key points Anna covered in the discussion included:
- From a political perspective, a road user charge can easily look like another tax, which makes it difficult to progress.
- From a practical perspective, it’s also challenging – how do you track road use without raising privacy concerns?
- The fuel excise used to make up a substantive portion of federal government revenue but has been falling over time. Acting now will help address this fall in revenue and improve productivity by encouraging better use of the network.
- Ideally, a road user charge (focussed on recovering road costs) would reflect the distance travelled, vehicle mass, and where you drive – since these are the key drivers of road wear and costs.
- Internationally, New Zealand has recently implemented a road user charge for EVs alongside a fuel excise, showing that hybrid systems are possible.
While the policy need is clear, the implementation remains complex – requiring coordination across federal, state, and local governments, and careful design to balance practical and economic outcomes.
It’s a challenging reform, but an important one for the future of Australia’s transport system.
