MELBOURNE, 18 October 2023: Greenpeace Australia Pacific says the High Court’s decision today to scrap Victoria’s road-user tax for electric vehicles is a sensible outcome, and is again today calling on the Federal government to speed up its efforts to establish a long-awaited national Fuel Efficiency Standard.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific today welcomed the decision by the High Court to ditch Victoria’s ill-considered electric vehicle (EV) tax.
“At a time of climate crisis, Australia must quickly move towards clean electric vehicles to replace big, dirty, fossil fuel cars. Taxing Australians for doing the right thing was an ill-considered step, at a time when Governments should be rewarding people for doing the right thing by the planet,” said Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Joe Rafalowicz.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific also urged the Federal Government to accelerate its efforts around electric vehicles.
“The Federal government must now implement its national Fuel Efficiency Standard to cut emissions and make EVs more affordable with haste.
“The government should also rule out any measures that would slow the EV transition. If road user charges are to be considered in the future, they need to be designed in a way that guarantees emissions reduction, and disincentives the shift to larger and larger vehicles. Poorly thought-through state levies, which only apply to EV drivers, are a dead end.”
