Excise dollars go to waste - Herald Sun

DEATH TRAP: The Bruce Highway is one of the nation's most dangerous roads. Source: The Courier-Mail

EVERY time you put $50 worth of petrol into your car, $17 goes to the Federal Government in the form of fuel excise and GST - but only a fraction of that ever finds its way back into roads and rail.

The imbalance between what is collected from motorists and what is returned to transport infrastructure has long been a bugbear for motoring groups, and never more so than now when funding of major projects is uncertain.

Even though Queensland's contribution to revenue from fuel excise would almost cover the cost of Cross River Rail, the Bruce Highway upgrade and the Toowoomba Range Crossing, Canberra is refusing to making any commitments to grandscale funding.

Executive Director of the Australian Automobile Association, Andrew McKellar said this financial year, the Federal Government was set to collect $14.6 billion in fuel excise - only $4.7 billion would go to rail and roads nationwide.

"There's a huge infrastructure gap at the moment. We've got to find a way to address that and there are solutions," Mr McKellar said.

"We need a fundamental reform to the approach to road funding, and funding for transport infrastructure."

He said the AAA was continuing to lobby Canberra to return more of the fuel excise to the infrastructure used by those who paid the tax.

"The Bruce Highway is one of the top priorities nationally," Mr McKellar said. "It records the highest level of overall fatalities along with the Pacific Highway."

The state's peak motoring body, RACQ, is also keeping up the pressure on the Federal Government to return all of the fuel excise to roads and rail.

Public Policy executive manager Michael Roth said while investment in roads by Canberra had improved, it was still a long way off what was needed.

Research undertaken in the past year found Queenslanders drove more kilometres a year on average than motorists interstate, and spent about $411 a year more on fuel.

Mr Roth said improved investment in the roads, particularly the Bruce and Warrego Highways, would not only lift productivity, it would save governments' money on health costs.

"By duplicating a highway, you virtually eliminate head-on crashes straight away," he said.

"So there would not only be fewer crashes, there would be a lot fewer very severe crashes."