The High Court has rejected the Victorian government’s tax on electric vehicles as invalid, ruling that only the Commonwealth has the power to make such laws.
The court ruled by majority that the Zero and Low Emission Vehicle Distance-based Charge Act 2021 was an “inland tax on goods” that fit the definition of an excise under section 90 of the Constitution,nursing manager Chris Vanderstock and engineering consultant Kath Davies, who have called the Act “the world’s worst EV policy” and “a roadblock to reducing emissions” and getting better air quality.
The High Court said in a statement that the question of whether it was a tax on goods turned “on whether, first, the tax bears a close relation to the production or manufacture, sale, distribution, or consumption of goods, and, second, whether the tax is of such a nature as to affect the goods as the subjects of manufacture or production or as articles of commerce”.
“The ZLEV charge is a tax on goods because there is a close relation between the tax and the use of ZLEVs, and the tax affects ZLEVs as articles ofis the legal editor, based in our Sydney newsroom. He has been a senior adviser to federal and state attorneys-general and written two books, one a biography of former High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson.