IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v177y2026ics0967070x25004731.html

Road user charge reform and the political shift in interest in Australia: Some thoughts to contemplate

Author

Listed:
  • Hensher, David A.

Abstract

The 2024 electric vehicle distance-based charge introduced in Victoria, Australia, to recognise that such vehicles do not pay fuel excise tax, led to a high court challenge in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to introduce such a charge, which is the responsibility of the Federal government (through legislation amendment). This loss of fuel excise as a tax (not a charge) on electric cars whetted the appetite of the Federal Government to place road user charging on a round table in August 2025. We now have elevated the topic right into the political sphere where any change will require such support, and it opens up an opportunity to not only consider the fuel excise issue per se but the broader agenda on road pricing reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Hensher, David A., 2026. "Road user charge reform and the political shift in interest in Australia: Some thoughts to contemplate," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:177:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x25004731
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25004731
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103930?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:177:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x25004731. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.