Surging oil prices and the release of the Garnaut Review’s draft report on climate change and Emissions Trading Scheme have again fuelled debate about petrol prices. A risk is this debate will shift towards providing short-term relief at the bowser at the expense of the long-term well-being of the economy and the environment. While a simple cut in petrol tax would no-doubt be welcomed by motorists feeling the pinch, the real opportunities for governments are in implementing broad strategies to create a more sustainable transport system, with the effect of helping to keep a lid on motoring costs and benefitting the environment. As a society, we must continue to introduce measures to reduce fuel consumption and the emissions of all vehicles, reduce the demand for travel and provide better opportunities for the community to use public transport. Many of these measures are well underway, but more is needed. The Australian Automobile Association believes that fuel excise of 38.1 cents per litre – of which only 10 cents are returned to roads infrastructure – should be removed and replaced with a road-user charge that means those with the highest impact on roads and the environment pay more. The road user charge would account for the cost of providing road infrastructure and maintenance, the cost of accidents to the community, an environment impact charge and the cost of congestion, but only applying to those contributing to severe congestion.


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    Title :

    Congestion – Choking Australia’s Economy


    Contributors:
    Mike Harris (author)


    Publication date :

    2008



    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




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