Road User Charging: An Old Cost Made More Fair and Visible

Paul Fletcher is the principal of advisory firm Paul Fletcher & Associates and the former Australian minister for communications, urban infrastructure, cities and the arts.He was elected to the Australian Parliament as the Member for Bradfield in December 2009, the first of six elections he contested successfully. Paul served for over fifteen years before retiring from the Parliament at the May 2025 election.What you’ll learn:Where the money for roads actually comes from. Fuel excise, state and local revenue, and why the link between what drivers pay and what gets built is weaker than most people assume.Why road user charging isn’t a new tax. The case that this is an existing charge being updated for technological change, not an additional impost — and why it has gone largely unnoticed for so long.What the shift to electric vehicles does to the funding base. As more drivers move to hybrids and EVs, excise revenue falls. Whether that’s a fairness problem or simply the price of encouraging the transition.What connected vehicle data makes possible now. Why measuring road use accurately is no longer a logbook exercise, and what that changes about the design of any scheme.