Overview

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers elevated a per‑kilometre road‑user charge to the top tier of tax reform, reporting “a lot of conceptual support” but no settled model.
• Chalmers will brief state and territory counterparts on 5 September with an options paper, coordinating work with Transport Minister Catherine King and NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey.
• Officials are weighing a phased rollout that could begin with heavy vehicles, with a longer‑term goal of replacing the fuel excise across the broader fleet.
• The push responds to shrinking fuel‑excise revenue as EV and high‑efficiency cars grow; the excise currently sits around 51.6–51.8 cents per litre.
• A High Court ruling that voided Victoria’s per‑kilometre levy confines such schemes to the federal level, as Canberra draws on findings from the National Heavy Vehicle Charging Pilot’s completed Phase 3.