There are those among us who appear to think that electric cars will cause a fall in tax revenue, so should the users of these vehicles be hit with the excise on petrol and the petrol tax to level up the playing field?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-28/changes-required-to-fuel-excise-funding-before-electric-car-boom/10175402

Well, that depends how much electric cars reduce Global Warming & pollution by !

Those in government who think that electric cars are going to be a big thing are already looking to change from fuel excise & GST on top of that to a mileage charge for use of roads.

They are ahead of the game of electric cars reducing the tax take.

Of course those don't understand the full switch to electric is the lead into taking private cars off us, with perhaps a short term hiring of electric things as a lead to this.

The elites really can't believe how they let us peasants get access to private transport, large comfortable homes, & even flying around the place in aircraft when ever we want. They definitely want to put us back in our place, serving their comfort not ours.

Any one who doesn't understand this is simply a dill who has not thought through the whole global warming scam.

No, and the government shouldn't be charging 42c a litre fuel excise in the first place, its an impediment to national productivity.

Make them pay tax on their profits, don't tax them into bankruptcy before they even get paid.

Yes all past governments have become hooked on fuel tax
Not using it to build roads but for the budgets bottom line
They will continue this, with any new fuel we use
Dislike of electric cars is not going to stop them
They now are a very real opportunity for profit, that drives new technology not the climate

There has been a number techniques suggested. Some require installation
of readers of various types, magnetic readers of devices fitted under
cars, number plate readers etc.
Such methods will setup rat runs to avoid the readers.
Others require GPS enabled boxes that record the distance traveled.
They could be read remotely or at time of registration renewable.
There are a magnitude of ways to fiddle such systems. eg put some
alfoil around the GPS receiver antenna. Electronically diving the
odometer past maximum reading to a lower than real value.
You can bet whatever system the government decides on it will be hacked.

There needs to be a tax on the distance travelled on the roads, which could be charged at time of registration; This could be verified by the servicing mechanic, and listed on the registration papers.

Well over half the cost of fuel is tax & GST. The average motorist is paying over $1500 a year in fuel tax. Add to that the $750 to $1000 it now coats to register a car Josephus, & you would have most needing to find $2500 to register their car.

How many families struggle just finding enough to pay the rego let alone all the "fuel/road tax" together at one time? At least the fuel tax is extracted reasonably painlessly in small amounts at the bowser.

Pushing electric cars to suit a global warming fraud is stupid, & will cause many more unexpected consequences than just a funding problem. It is another fool direction by government. Do you know of any instance where government picked a winner that wasn't the cause of more problems than it cured.

Joephus, that is easily defeated with todays computer based dashboard
display. The sensor that records distance can be connected to a pulse
generator and you set it at a pulse rate that equals say, 10000 km a
minute until it exceeds max display, say 999999 km and then continues
to a count just a few thousand km above your last rego check.
How long before the pub mechanic will do it for you for a few beers !
That is why they have not already adopted your suggestion.
It only captures the honest people.

Hey Hasbeen,
Don't forget to add the cost of road tolls;
If you have to use a toll road to go to and from work;
- Then the full cost including tolls might be double that of rego, fuel excise and gst alone.

Also there's stamp-duty every time a car is purchased or changes ownership;
- And that's another little ponzi scheme.

Who gives a toss. Most of us here will never own an electric car.

NSW is constantly changing road rules and may lead in the often called for pay by the mile system
A locked devise measuring how far we travel could do that job
If we saw every cent gained in fuel taxes and road fines spent on roads we would have four lane divided bush tracks
But the money go to run much more
NSW has informed us [not before time] it will have hidden cameras looking for mobile phone use by Christmas 5 points off license, double if in holiday times
Trial found over a hundred thousand could have been fined

Dear Is Mise,

I read the link that you gave in your opening post
and I agree with Adrian Dwyer, Chief of Infrastructure
Partnerships Australia who has made a submission
to the Senate Committee on electric vehicles.

He explains that "Roads aren't free, we have to pay
for road infrastructure and we have to pay
for transport infrastructure and that means paying for
them through taxes or paying through user charges.
A user-pay system where drivers pay based on how much
of the road they use."

He goes on to suggest a system where drivers paid the
government for the kilometres they drive in a month in
much the same way people paid their phone bills -
and he said he wanted to start with electric cars.

There's more at the link you cited:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-28/changes-required-to-fuel-excise-funding-before-electric-car-boom/10175402

Calling all old pensioner people. $2.50 all day on the bus, train and ferry!

Not any bus train or ferry's here Paul, but would use them if there was
Not sure we can ever see petrol or its replacements [currently in part gas] not taxed
We just could not run the country without it
Electricity is running trucks cars and buses now, remember the first cars some times ran on kero

Paul,

You will be annoyed to know that Seniors - i.e anyone over 60 but not working, not just OAPs - including wealthy Green superannuants can travel FREE on all public transport every day of the week between 9am and 3pm in SA.

Have all main, expressway and new roads tolled to pay for road development and maintenance. The cost of electricity would increase as tax, if you own an electric vehicle.

There is a special electric car taz applied.
Many electric car get the Luxury Car Tax applied.
There is an additional tax of 35% applied to the difference between
the Luxury tax level and the sale price.

Hey ttbn,
"You will be annoyed to know that Seniors - i.e anyone over 60 but not working, not just OAPs - including wealthy Green superannuants can travel FREE on all public transport every day of the week between 9am and 3pm in SA."

These are they types of socialist policies that I don't mind, even actually support;
These are the benefits that the entire nation could've had if government business were run properly and not run into the ground and sold off.

AC agree it makes us a better world to let such things happen
You however will need to convince some fairness and equity is ok

Same here Belly. The nearest bus, other than school buses exclusively for school kids is 26 kilometers from here. Not much use, no matter how cheap. I last rode a bus in 1984, & it was such a lousy form of transport I have not repeated the experience

The train is in the same place, & much more useful, particularly the airport train. I used trains to go to pick up my last sports car purchase, 6 years ago. It was useful, but as I was not going to the city center it was rather annoying. Two changes of train, & 4 hours to do the trip across the city, which took just one hour & 25 minutes to reverse in the car, even at peak hour. To suggest public transport is a viable alternative to the private car is simply a bad joke.

I don't know how elderly handle shopping by bus, there is no way I could carry a weeks shopping to a bus stop, or home from a stop. Going daily would be a real pain.

I remember my mother shopping in the 50s. She did not drive, so like many others, she dragged a thing like a golf bag on wheels over a mile each way along a mostly gravel road each week. I got the meat daily coming home from school. Not a chore for the elderly.

Public transport seems only for our city brethren, & then really only if your destination is the city center.

Very true Hasbeen and if you could leave your car at the railway station while you went away it would not be there when you returned
Even closer to city stations are seeing few car parking spaces and many stolen in the day
Public transport is only a word it does not exist out side city's