There are just over 83,000 electric vehicles on Australian roads, almost half of them bought in 2022.with the ACT already planning to ban the sale of new petrol cars in 2035.
But environmentalists and carmakers have sounded the horn on the policy. They say it’s a handbrake on Australia’s already slow uptake of low-emissions vehicles. Cars produce 9 per cent of Australia’s annual carbon emissions. Beck says the question has lain dormant until now: states have been less inclined to impose goods-related taxes since the federal government introduced a GST in 2000 – the states and territories get the revenue from this 10 per cent tax on goods and services. A Victorian win could clear the way for states to impose new taxes on the use of goods, he says. “It opens up potentially billions of dollars of additional revenue sources for the state.
The federal government collects about $12 billion in fuel excise every year, which covers about a third of the cost of maintaining the nation’s road networks, but that will rapidly disappear if Australia follows the rest of the world and shifts to EVs.