More than 1.5 million daily commuters in Sydney will face price increases to their normal trips after the government announced a hike - despite advice they should introduce free travel days.
The cover-up of a ‘financial mirage’ that has inflated the NSW budget and may put rail safety at risk
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The NSW government has attempted to cover up how it artificially inflated the state’s budgets by tens of billions of dollars after it shifted the rail network’s costs onto a corporation that still hasn’t been able to properly operate six years after it was launched.
A trove of highly confidential documents and testimony of whistleblowers reveals NSW Treasury pressured accounting giant KPMG to delete or amend aspects of a report commissioned by Transport for NSW that found the plan could end up costing the state’s coffers more than it saved.
Last modified on Sat 29 May 2021 16.01 EDT
As of last week, Canberrans who buy electric and other zero-emissions vehicles automatically receive two years’ registration for free. The Australian Capital Territory already waives stamp duty for clean cars, and has promised households and not-for-profit organisations interest-free loans of up to $15,000 to buy them.
Also last week, the Victorian parliament passed the country’s first road user charge – a tax on every kilometre driven – for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids. The Labor state government’s legislation was backed by enough crossbench MPs to pass the upper house despite opposition from the Coalition and Greens. It starts on 1 July.
Sydney’s problem-plagued River Class ferries are at risk of running up to 18 months late after even more issues were discovered with the overseas-built vessels.
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Victorian owners of electric cars and other zero-emissions vehicles will be required to pay a road-user tax of 2.5 cents per kilometre driven from 1 July 2021 – and the precedent could trigger other states to follow.
The charge amounts to $375 a year based on the national average distance travelled of 15,000km, or just $125 a year for vehicles that travel 5000km a year.
The Victorian Government argued the road user charge needed to be introduced because zero emissions vehicles avoid fuel excise, a large portion of which goes towards roads.
The new laws, passed this week by the Victorian Legislative Assembly, also require plug-in hybrid owners to pay 2 cents for every kilometre driven ($300 for every 15,000km).