Re: $4b transport plan to ease petrol heat

[amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)]

>On Sat, 21 Oct 2000 01:03:28 +1000, "Tezza"
><tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au> wrote:

>>I beg your pardon! Car drivers *more* than pay their bloody way. Both the NSW
>>and Federal governments collect far more in fuel taxes than is spent on roads.

Actually this is a fallacy.  According to the RACV (Victorian motor lobby),
$8.6 billion in fuel excise was collected by Australian governments in the
1996/97 financial year.  And according to the Australian Local Government
Association (a body of local council road engineers) the total amount spent
on roads in the following year by all three levels of government - federal,
state and local - was exactly the same: $8.6 billion.

I would expect these figures are typical.  Perhaps there are some years when
excise revenue exceeds road expenditure by a billion or so.  But as Tali has
said, the community has to wear the consequences of car dependence in all
sorts of costly ways.  Even the higher price of petrol is in part a
consequence of excessive demand for oil resulting from a car-dependent
lifestyle.  And feeding the habit by building more roads just seems to make
the problem worse, if the experience of every other city in the world is
anything to go by.

Anyway, even if petrol tax did provide extra revenue beyond that required for
building and maintaining roads, there's no reason why governments shouldn't
derive revenue from this source as much as any other.  Do you also believe
that all gambling taxes should be spent on poker machines?

Tony M.